


I Want You To Stay

by Moonlight_Writer_2020



Category: My Engineer (TV)
Genre: Actor who plays Ram is a character, M/M, Mentions of Eating Disorder, Mentions of other My Engineer characters, Original Characters - Freeform, identical twin au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:41:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 78,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26324323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlight_Writer_2020/pseuds/Moonlight_Writer_2020
Summary: While it was true that Ram didn't speak very often, King was extremely surprised that he had never mentioned having an identical twin brother.
Relationships: King/Ram (My Engineer)
Comments: 66
Kudos: 196





	1. Chapter 1

King used his fingers to rake back his hair and took a deep breath. He unlocked the door of the condo and stepped inside. He kicked off his shoes and removed his backpack as he called out for Ram.

“Hey, Cool Boy! I’m home!

Hearing no response, King went into the kitchen to see if Ram was in there. He found the note that Ram had left on the refrigerator for him.

_“I’m taking the dogs to stay at Duen’s for the night. I’ll be back before your appointment with P’Thara to get your stitches removed. Don’t leave without me!”_

King felt his heart sink a bit. He was not looking forward to getting his stitches out. A part of him was thankful that Ram wanted to go with him, but a bigger part of him wished he wasn’t. He was nervous to face Ram again. What was he going to say to him? “Sorry I attacked you in the tent the other night”? Ugh. How could a person ever apologize for something like that? Frankly he was surprised that Ram hadn’t moved out of the condo while King was at his Grandmother’s house. King had stayed away longer than he had originally planned just to postpone the talk he knew they needed to have. Ram sent him a text the night before reminding him of his appointment or else King probably still wouldn’t have come home. He would have skipped a couple of days of classes. He was the top student so it wouldn’t have affected his grade.

King checked the time and saw that it was still a while before his appointment. He opened the refrigerator, intending to get something to drink, when he heard someone knocking at the front door. He closed the refrigerator door and hurried down the hall to answer. When he opened the door, Ram was standing there. King averted his eyes and headed back into the kitchen.

“Did you forget your key?” he called over his shoulder.

Ram gave a slight grunt of agreement and followed King.

“I’m going to grab a juice to take with me,” King explained with his face inside the refrigerator. He pulled out two and turned to hand one of them to Ram.

He felt all the blood leave his face and his back prickled with sweat. He jerked his hand back. “Who are you?” he managed to squeak out as he fell back against the open refrigerator in his haste to get away from the stranger. A stranger who looked exactly like Ram.

The stranger gave a small frown and answered in a quiet voice, “I’m Ram.”

“No, you’re not!” King slowly sidestepped away to get some distance between himself and the stranger in his kitchen. His mind flashed on a movie he had watched as a kid where pods from outer space came to Earth and made replicas of humans. He tried to push the thought out of his mind, because it was insane, but his logical mind could not come up with a better explanation.

He heard a small sound in the hallway and instinctively began to move slowly in that direction. The Ram-looking-stranger smiled at him and King asked again, this time more firmly, “Who are you?!”

He felt someone come up behind him and grab his wrist. The hand gave him a slight squeeze and King felt relief surge through him. He didn’t even have to look back to know that the hand belonged to the real Ram. “It’s okay,” Ram said quietly from behind him. “That’s my brother, Perth.”

The stranger grinned and reached up to pull his fringe down to sweep across his forehead. King assumed this was his regular hairstyle and had only been copying Ram’s. “Identical twin brother, Perth, you mean.” He walked over to the refrigerator and shut the door that King had left open. He read the note on it that Ram had left for King. “I see that you have somewhere you have to be so I’ll leave now. I’d like to come back later so we can catch up, brother; it’s been a long time.” He walked up to King and took one of the juice bottles out of his hand. “You offered but you didn’t follow through,” he said with a laugh. “By the way, aside from Ram’s pack of smelly hounds, Ruj is the only one who can tell us apart—and he has never done it as quickly as you did!”

“Are you into tattoos now?” Ram asked.

Perth laughed. “No way! I’m still terrified of needles!” He reached up behind his ear and peeled off the dream catcher tattoo. “It’s fake. I dated an aspiring artist for a bit. I showed her a picture of yours and she made me a lifetime supply of them.”

Ram gave a small sigh and King felt it rather than heard it.

Perth grinned at them, “I’ll see myself out. Happy stitch removal!”

Ram looked around the corner of the wall and then turned and nodded to King. King knew that Ram was telling him that Perth had actually left the condo. King let out a shaky breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

Ram pulled out his phone from his pocket and soon had his four closest friends faces appear on his screen. “Perth is back. Code is ‘banana peel’.” His friends all acknowledge it and Ram disconnected.

Ram extended his hand and King looked at it with a puzzled frown. “Keys?” Ram asked.

King nodded and fished his keys out of his pocket and handed them to Ram. He didn’t understand why Ram was offering to drive, but he was glad for it. He was worried about getting his stitches out and that encounter with Perth in the kitchen had unnerved him a lot. He looked at Ram, who was putting on his shoes, and realized with a start that Ram had read him. He knew that King was not up to driving. King was taken aback. He had always been able to read Ram but now he wondered how long Ram had been able to read _him_.

Ram took hold of King’s wrist and gave it a small shake, which brought King out of his musings. Ram gave a nod of his head towards the floor where King’s shoes were placed. King nodded and slipped them on.

Ram didn’t let go of King’s wrist until they reached the car and even then he waited until King was settled in the passenger seat. Ram closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. King realized he still had the unopened bottle of juice in his hand that he had been clutching tightly since he had pulled it out of the refrigerator and was stunned by his introduction to Perth. He placed it in the cup holder in the console. He had no desire for it now.

After a few moments into their trip, King turned to examine Ram’s profile. “You never mentioned that you had a twin brother.”

Ram gave a small shrug.

“What was that about when you told your friends that the code was ‘banana peel’?”

Ram sighed, “He likes to try to prank people; pretend he is me.”

King nodded, he had witnessed that himself. He understood the need for a code then. It would keep his friends from going though the same treatment.

“He’s not in any of your pictures on FaceBook or Instagram,” King stated, still watching for any reaction from Ram.

“He lives in the UK,” Ram finally answered.

King frowned. It was an answer and a non-answer at the same time. He could understand why being in another country would keep Perth from being in a lot of the pictures, but all? That didn’t make sense. Surely he must come home for vacations and school breaks. It seemed like there would be family pictures of some kind taken then. King concluded that there was, but Ram didn’t post them. The only reason that King could imagine was that Ram wasn’t especially fond of Perth.

By the time King had this sorted out in his mind, Ram was pulling into the outpatient parking lot of the hospital. King felt his anxiety returning in a huge wave as they walked in. King signed in and then sat down in the seat next to Ram.

“I hate the way this place smells,” King grumbled.

“Clean?” Ram asked.

King gave a small chuckle, “Okay, it’s clean, but too clean.”

They sat in silence for a bit and then King turned to look at Ram who was looking at something on the other side of him. “Listen, Cool Boy—you don’t have to go in with me. It’s not the same as when they put the stitches in. No needles this time.”

Ram turned his head and stared at King. King looked down at his hands and sighed. He knew that look. Ram would be going in with him. King still felt guilty about the fingernail marks he had left in Ram’s hand when he got the stitches.

It wasn’t long before King’s name was called to go back to see the doctor. King walked behind the nurse who was showing him the way. Ram was right on his heels like a shadow.

P’Thara was waiting for them in the examination room. “Hello King! I bet you are glad to get those stitches out today!”

“I will be glad once it’s over,” King answered honestly. “And I will be glad to finally be able to wash my hair again.”

P’Thara smiled. “Then let’s get to it, shall we? Hop up on the table and we’ll get started! Ram, I am glad you are here to give him emotional support! I think we all remember how much he disliked getting those stitches put in.”

King did as he was instructed. As he lay down, he placed his hands at his sides; he closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. When P’Thara started to cut the first stitch, King squeezed his hand closed tightly. He felt Ram slide his hand near King’s. King was determined to ignore it until he felt P’Thara pulling the stitch out of his scalp. King reached out blindly and grabbed Ram’s hand. Remembering the awful cuts his nails had placed in Ram’s hand before, King was determined not to do that again. Instead he interlaced his fingers with Ram’s and held on tightly.

Ram covered their joined hands with his other hand. King lost all thoughts about his stitches and just focused on the comfort of Ram’s hands on his. P’Thara began to chat to them about the camping trip and how much fun he had had there. King internally squirmed at the topic but remained silent.

P’Thara continued on, speaking about the trip as he worked. He raved about the great photographs he had gotten of the scenery there. Especially when he used his lizard, Cupcake, as a model. Somehow, King wasn’t exactly sure how though, P’Thara changed subjects in mid-sentence and began speaking about the new flower shop near the campus.

Realizing that he hadn’t said anything for a while, and knowing that Ram wouldn’t, King thought it only polite to say something in response. “I’ve seen roses from there. They were beautiful. I went in once and…uh, they had nice plants for sale, too.” King felt Ram give his hand a small squeeze. King wondered if his face turned red because it suddenly felt very hot to him.

P’Thara continued chatting about the flower shop for a few more minutes and then he laid his scissors down on a metal tray beside the bed. “There now! All done!” He said. “It looks like it has healed very nicely.”

Ram leaned forward and looked at it. He met King’s searching eyes and smiled. He gave a small nod.

King gave a massive exhale of relief and then sat up. He was thankful that it was over and he didn’t have to have anything more done.

“Before you leave,” P’Thara said, “I want to caution you about washing your hair! Make sure you massage your scalp gently. Don’t go in there with your fingernails or else you could rip the new skin open and we will have to put more stitches in!”

King promised he wouldn’t. And then P’Thara pulled out his phone.

“Mostly I used my digital camera to take pictures of the trip. But I want to show you a few pictures I took with my phone,” he said. “Here’s my little Cupcake sunning himself on a rock.” King and Ram shared the phone and looked at the picture. King looked away from the ugly lizard and saw the waterfall in the background. He remembered Ram placing the flower crown on his head there.

The next picture was Cupcake, again sunning himself on a rock, in the area where they had taken the group picture. King remembered how Ram had looked at him during it and how King had turned away. King swallowed hard and looked away from the picture.

“And here is the best one of all!” P’Thara announced proudly. “Cupcake caught his own dinner!” King looked at the picture and saw a massive, winged insect in Cupcake’s mouth. He suppressed a shudder and quickly looked away from Cupcake and observed the background. He could see the tents. His mouth went dry and his heart began to race. “Those are lovely pictures,” he said quickly. “I can see why you are so proud of him!” He handed P’Thara back his phone and moved toward the door. “Thanks so much for everything,” he said and then darted into the hall. He walked quickly and didn’t look back to see if Ram was following. King knew that he would be.

He reached the car which Ram had locked when they arrived. Luckily, he had been correct about Ram following close behind. Ram unlocked the doors.

King was fastening his seat belt when Ram said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

King laughed and felt some of the tension leaving his body. “He really doesn’t see that the rest of us find Cupcake to be…well, not a pet that any of us would want, does he?”

Ram smiled and shook his head ‘no’. He backed out of the parking space and they rode for a while in silence. King flipped down the visor and opened the mirror on it. He could get a pretty good view of the new scar on his head once he pulled some of the hair to the side. It was bigger than he thought it would be, but he could see for himself that it was healed. He shook his hair back down and then ran his fingers in it to flip it back.

Ram pulled into a parking spot of the restaurant where they usually ate. King’s stomach gave a slight rumble. He hadn’t realized he was hungry until that moment.

King followed Ram inside. Ram walked to their usual table and sat down in his usual spot. King sat down across from him, in his usual spot. On the surface, everything was normal. But it wasn’t. It was as if the world had tilted on its axis and everything was different and odd.

The server came to the table and took their order. King was glad it wasn’t the girl from the first time they had been there. He was afraid that she would mess up their order on purpose since Ram had refused to give her his LINE number. King looked at the serving station and saw that she was working. He idly wondered if she had traded tables so she wouldn’t have to wait on them.

He turned his attention to the large windows that faced the parking lot, and beyond the lot, the main road. He watched cars passing by for a while. Finally he turned his attention to Ram and saw that Ram was watching him.

King took a deep breath and let it out. He cleared his throat. “I think we need to talk about that night in the tent.”

Ram studied King’s face for a moment and then shook his head ‘no’. The server arrived at that moment with their food. After she delivered their order and left the table, Ram said, “You’re not ready yet,” and then he began eating.

King sighed as he looked down at his plate. Ram wasn’t wrong; King wasn’t ready. But until they talked it out, King knew things weren’t going to go back to normal. He acknowledged to himself that even if they did discuss it, things might not ever go back to normal. He sighed again and picked up his chopsticks.

Ram reached over with his chopsticks and grabbed a piece of roasted pork from King’s plate. King raised his shocked eyes to meet Ram’s smiling ones. Ram popped the roast pork into his mouth and chewed it in an exaggerated fashion and peeked out of the side of his eye at King.

King knew that Ram was trying to make him feel better by reminding him of the time he had done the same thing to Ram. Ram’s kindness actually made King feel worse, but he pushed that feeling down and grinned at Ram. “Next time I will put lots of ginger on my food as soon as I get it!”

They ate in silence for a while. It started to get on King’s nerves. He hadn’t planned to tell anyone about the test he had done on himself, but the silence got to be too much for him.

“A while back I read an article about facing your fears and how to defeat them,” he began. Ram looked up and King knew that he was interested in hearing more. “I decided to try it when I was visiting my granny. Yesterday, she took a rest in the afternoon so I took a walk to the house where the dog that bit me lived.”

King could read the shock and compassion on Ram’s face. “No, it was okay. I guess they moved away. Besides, it’s possible that the dog would be dead by now anyway. It happened when I was really young.” He paused to take a drink, he noticed that his hand was a bit shaky and hoped Ram didn’t notice it, too. “After I saw that the dog was gone,” King continued, “I went back to Granny’s house. The day that it happened, I had been sitting under a tree, playing with little cars,” he held up his hand with his fingers a few inches apart. Ram nodded to show that he understood what King meant.

King paused and used his chopsticks to rearrange the food on his plate for a moment. He took a deep breath and then looked up at Ram. “I went to the tree and sat down under it. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to remember all of it. It was…well, it was pretty intense. I ended up running inside Granny’s house.” He finished and went back to eating. From his peripheral vision, he saw Ram watching him for a moment before also going back to his dinner.

King was finishing the last bit of his food when he began to speak again. “After my failed experiment, I was still curious about the steps I read about in that article. Obviously I can’t test it for myself so I decided we should do it for you. I called my sister and she is going to drop off the twins everyday for us to watch for a few hours. And probably by the end of the week, I will leave you alone to watch them by yourself. That way we can see if it really works.”

Ram looked at King with shock and horror on his face. King had been pretending to take a drink from his juice in an attempt to appear nonchalant, but when he saw the look on Ram’s face, he laughed. “I’m kidding! I wouldn’t do that!”

The shock and horror eased from Ram’s face, but left behind a trace of suspicion, evidenced by the lowered eyelids and the side-eye he was giving King. This made King laugh harder, “I swear! I didn’t even call her!”

Ram gave a small nod and a ghost of a smile played across his lips as he reached for his juice. Before he could get to it, however, his phone sounded an alert that he had an incoming message. He fished his phone out of his pant’s pocket and read the message. He frowned as he passed the phone to King. “Perth,” he announced.

“Speaking of twins,” King said as he accepted Ram’s phone and read the message. Perth wanted to come by the condo later. King shrugged and said, “That’s up to you,” as he handed the phone back.

Ram sighed and tapped in a message. He looked at King and nodded.

“I still can’t get over it. Your having an identical twin, I mean. It seems like at some point, you would have mentioned him. I have been wondering—don’t you like him?”

Ram shrugged, “He’s my brother.”

King leaned back in his chair and studied Ram. Another answer/non-answer regarding Perth. Just because someone was related to you, it didn’t necessarily mean that you liked them, did it?

Ram again reached for his juice. Just as the rim of the glass touched his lips, he mumbled, “My Dostoevsky _‘Double’_.”

“What?” King asked, leaning forward again. He didn’t understand what Ram had said.

Ram finished his juice and then shook his head to show that it hadn’t been important. He glanced at King’s empty plate and glass and then up at King.

“No, I don’t want anything else,” King replied, still puzzling over what Ram had mumbled.

On the ride back to the condo, King watched Ram’s hand on the steering wheel. He was gripping it much tighter than was necessary. King gave a little nod to himself for determining the answer. It was obvious—Ram did not like his twin.


	2. Chapter 2

When they arrived back at the condo, King immediately gathered up his plant supplies. He had been gone longer than he expected to be, so he knew that his plants would need an extra amount of love and care.

As he moved from plant to plant, he could see Ram standing at the living room window, looking out at the lights in the night. King could tell by Ram’s posture that he was deep in thought. He wondered if Ram was thinking about the situation of his parents’ or the impending arrival of Perth. He finally concluded it was probably both.

He continued peeking at Ram while he worked. He made it further down the hall and from his new angle, when he looked at Ram, he realized that Ram wasn’t actually looking out at the city. He was watching King in the reflection on the window. Their eyes met briefly and King hurriedly looked away and began to talk to the fern he was tending.

King had only gotten a few more plants tended to when Perth knocked on the door. Ram hurried by King to answer, giving him a nod to continue with his work.

Perth came in carrying a few bags. “I stopped and bought some supplies!” he announced and proceeded to pull out multiple bottles of liquor and bags of snacks and placed them on the table in the living room.

Ram went into the kitchen and came back carrying three glasses.

“None for me thanks!” King called from the top of his stepstool.

Ram looked at King with a puzzled frown and King quickly looked away. He had sworn to himself never to drink around Ram again. He didn’t trust himself, and he wanted Ram to feel safe. “Uh…I have a bit of a headache and I don’t want to mix the pain relievers with alcohol,” he lied.

Ram nodded and exchanged the third glass in his hand for a bottle of juice.

“You really have a green thumb, don’t you?” Perth asked.

“Yeah, I guess. I like plants so it sort of became a hobby to raise them.”

“No, this is not a hobby,” Perth corrected, “It is your passion.”

Perth walked over and took a seat on the couch, facing Ram. “It’s so odd,” he said to Ram with a laugh, “You are Fauna with your pack of hounds, and he is Flora with all his plants. In Roman mythology, they were twins, you know?” He shook his head and then asked, “Aren’t you at all interested in how I found you?”

King peeked at the window to watch Ram’s reflection. He saw him shrug and then take a drink.

“Well, I will tell you anyway, because I want to brag about how clever I am!” Perth laughed at his own joke and then began to talk. “I arrived home late last night. For fun, I pulled my hair to the side and stuck one of the tattoos on my neck before going in. I was certainly surprised by the reception I got when they thought you had returned! Luckily Ruj was already in bed or my cover would have been blown immediately. Mom was hugging all over me and asking about the dogs. I figured out right away that something had caused you to leave and take them with you. I assured her they were fine and then Dad said he wanted to speak to me alone. That was interesting,” he paused to take a drink. “He thanked me for not telling Mom about him and Pin and offered me a car as a thank you. I played it like how I figured you would. I kept silent and gave him a disapproving glare and then left the room. I said ‘goodnight’ to Mom and then went up to your room.” Perth opened up a bag of chips and grabbed a handful. He put a few in his mouth and then continued his story while chewing them. “I knew since they didn’t know where you were, you couldn’t be in your dorm room or with any of your friends. I went to your FaceBook page and started scrolling. It didn’t take long for me to find a picture that Ting had posted, of you with a person I had never seen before.” He turned to look at King. “You. Wearing a cute flower crown. Luckily, she tagged both of you in it. I went to your page and saw my brother’s tattooed arm in your profile picture. I knew for sure then that the two of you were close.”

He turned back to Ram. “I still have friends around here so I sent out messages, asking if anyone knew King…”

“P’King”, Ram corrected.

Perth jerked his head quickly and looked at King. “I am so sorry, P’King! I didn’t mean any disrespect! I forgot my manners,” he apologized in a rush, but obviously sincerely.

King accepted his apology and then Perth turned back to Ram. “This afternoon, a friend sent me a LINE and said they found somebody who knew somebody who said they knew P’King. They said they thought he lived on this block. I decided to do some snooping, so I was across the street, looking at that condo, when I happened to turn around at the right moment to see you leaving this building with your ‘wolf pack’. I assumed you were taking them for a walk and would be back quickly, so I came inside and waited in the lobby. It seemed like I had been waiting for hours and was thinking seriously about leaving, when P’King entered the building. I followed him to your door. I thought it would be fun to prank him, so I put on a tattoo and knocked. It still amazes me at how fast he figured out I wasn’t you!”

King had finished with all the plants in the hallway and living room and was working on the ones in the kitchen. He was mildly amused to hear that another one of Ram’s brothers had followed him secretly, remembering how he had met Ruj, who followed him that time on the campus. He decided it must be some kind of family trait. Then he remembered how his own sister, Kumfah, had burst into the condo to meet Ram and realized it was probably just a universal sibling thing.

“By the way, this morning at breakfast, I came to the table and had only taken a couple of bites when Ruj suddenly announced, ‘that’s not Ram, that’s Perth’,” Perth laughed. “I don’t know how he knows, but he always does. Mom was pissed because it meant she still didn’t know where you were and also she wanted to know why I was back home.”

“I was wondering that myself,” Ram said. “It’s not one of your school break periods.”

“Well…let’s just say that I took an unexpected vacation. You know—a wrong place at the wrong time kind of situation. The timing was great for my arrival home though. Thanks to Dad’s confession to me when he thought I was you, I will be driving a new car when I go back!”

“You mean you intend to accept a bribe to keep quiet?”

Perth laughed, “Of course I am! He has been bribing me since we were in the 5th grade and I caught him with our teacher.” He paused for a second and studied Ram’s face, “Oh wait…you didn’t know? You thought Pin was the first?” He barked out a harsh laugh, “I thought it was just bothering you because it was Pin! I know that you have been in love with her for years.”

“That’s not true. I have never been in love with her. She was my best friend,” Ram argued.

From King’s viewpoint, he couldn’t see Ram’s face, but he could see Perth’s. Perth leaned back in his chair with a small frown. He studied Ram for a moment, absentmindedly stroking his chin. He finally gave a small nod, “Okay, I can see that I was wrong about that.” He leaned forward again and continued, “Apparently you didn’t know about Dad’s little…hmm…let’s call them ‘indiscretions’. As I mentioned, I have known about them since we were in the 5th grade. It’s one of the main reasons I was allowed to go to school in the UK. If you remember, Mom was totally against my going. I threatened Dad that I would tell, and I was on a plane in no time!” He finished with a laugh.

“I don’t find any of this to be funny,” Ram said. His voice was quiet but very firm.

“These lapses don’t mean anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. He loves Mom. He just gets bored from time to time. He isn’t going to leave her for one of his flings. Besides, it would be like shooting himself in the foot. The only way he can be with his other women is to stay married,” Perth argued.

“What? That makes no sense,” Ram countered.

“Think about it! If Mom found out and left him, all the assets would be divided down the middle—actually though, Mom would probably get more because Ruj isn’t an adult yet. Dad would have to support two households instead of one. Plus, it would damage his business reputation if the word got out; which would affect his income. He only gets these girls because he spends money on them. He wouldn’t be able to if he weren’t married to Mom.”

“That’s disgusting,” Ram snarled.

“Okay, fine. It is disgusting, but it is also true. Even if it weren’t true, he still wouldn’t leave Mom. Like I said, he loves her.”

“No! If you love someone, it’s supposed to be forever. You don’t cheat on them!” Ram got up from his seat and poured himself another drink. He drank it down swiftly and then poured more into his glass and returned to his seat.

“Well, yeah…I guess in a perfect world…” Perth said with a shrug.

“No, the world doesn’t have to be perfect for people to keep their word to the person they claim to love!”

Again Perth shrugged, “You and I see it differently. You are a romantic and I am a realist. But this is their problem, not ours. They will work it out.”

“It’s 'his' problem, not ‘their’ problem. If he wants to run around, then he should be honest about it and leave Mom. Him running around behind her back and lying to her face is disgusting to me. I will never forgive him for it.”

Perth laughed and threw up his hands, “Okay, I surrender! You stay on your moral high ground and I will take the bribes to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t come here to discuss them anyway. I came to catch up with you. It seems like ages since we’ve talked. So, tell me…how did you and P’King meet?”

“We are in the same facility and we have some mutual friends,” Ram answered.

After a few moments of silence, Perth said with a small laugh, “Okay, so that’s it? That’s the story? Ram, you are as chatty as always! How did you end up staying here with him?”

“He invited me.”

“Well…I didn’t imagine that you kicked his door down and demanded he take you in!” Perth sighed dramatically and then gave a small laugh, “Okay, since you won’t talk, I will. I’m sure you remember that I used to take piano lessons and singing lessons when we were kids, right?” Perth paused and Ram gave a slight nod. Perth continued, “I decided that I would pick that up again. I won’t give up the acting classes, but I have added music studies to them—when I graduate, it will be with a double major. I’m already building my acting resume, two commercials last year, and now I am working on adding some musical performances to it. Everything was going well until this little dust-up with the school. It was no big deal but you know how schools can overreact.”

“Not from personal knowledge, no. Just from your record,” Ram replied, dryly.

Perth grinned, “Then just take my word for it.” He took a drink and then stared into his glass. He swirled the contents around and studied it for a moment. “I’ve just came out of a relationship. Her name was Becky—she is the artist who made the fake tattoos that look like yours. She wanted more of a commitment than I did.” He went back to quietly studying the liquid in his glass for a bit.

King had finished with tending to his plants and was planning on taking a shower but to get to the bathroom, he would have to walk through the living room. The atmosphere felt heavy in there, so he decided to wait in the kitchen a bit longer. The brothers were still sitting in silence so King drank a glass of water to kill the time.

“She dumped me,” Perth said quietly. “I was fine with it. At first. And then she started seeing this piece-of-shit, loser dude. He was a Business major and he really looked the part, too. Here she was, this beautiful, free-spirited artist, dating a button-down dude in a three-piece suit. I’m sure you can tell that I didn’t take that very well. One night, I was looking at his Instagram page and saw that he had posted a picture of them together that day. He used the caption, ‘My future wife’ or some such bullshit, and I admit it—I lost it then.” He drank what was in his glass and then refilled it. “I went to her dorm room and I pounded on her door…for about ten minutes. Finally I gave up. I met up with some friends and we went out drinking. I got angrier and angrier as the night wore on. A couple of friends and I went back to her dorm house but the door was locked for the night. There was this large glass window in the lobby. I looked in it and saw her standing by the elevator doors. I had a bottle of whiskey with me…so, as you probably already guessed, I threw it through the window at her…”

“Oh my God!” Ram exclaimed, “Was she hurt?”

“No, and I found out later, it wasn’t even her. She had moved out a couple of days previous to the incident. Moved into the piece-of-shit’s condo with him. Anyway, all that really happened was a window was busted. Luckily, it was cold out so me and my friends were covered up pretty well and the surveillance film of the incident wasn’t much use in identifying most of us. I say ‘most’ because one of the guys is pretty visible in it. This happened over a month ago, but they just caught up with him a few days ago. As soon as he was picked up, I caught the first flight home. I figured Dad could help me fix it. I’d confess to doing it and Dad could replace the window and make a donation, and they wouldn’t expel me.”

“That won’t work…” Ram began.

“Oh really?” Perth laughed, “The hardest part of my plan was going to be to get Dad on board with it. But…after he spilled his guts to me last night when he thought I was you…I had a bargaining chip. He has spent the day on the phone with the school, and I will be back on campus—driving my new car—in two weeks!”

Ram sighed quietly. “Things always seem to work out the way you want them to, don’t they?”

Perth grinned, “I have my moments. In fact, on the flight back here, I had plenty of time to think about everything. I realized that Becky didn’t want me and she really doesn’t want that piece-of-shit. She wants to be a suburban housewife. The whole ‘free-spirited artist’ persona is just an act. By dumping me now, she saved me years of grief.” He stood up, “You didn’t give me a tour of the condo. Care to show me where the bathroom is?”

When the brothers left the living room, King brought his glass of water with him and took a seat on the couch. He really just wanted to grab a shower and go to bed, but he knew he had to be polite. He would chat for a bit, but he didn’t intend to stay long.

Ram walked back into the living room and his eyes met King’s. He looked back toward the bathroom area and then turned back to King. He gave a slight frown and shook his head. King gave him a slight nod. He knew that Ram was basically saying, “Can you believe this guy???”

“Hey!” Perth called out and then came into the room, “Are you a gamer?”

King nodded, “I play sometimes.”

“I saw your equipment on that little table! You have some good stuff! Did you catch James FoxMilk’s stream last month?”

King was taken aback. He had presumed that Perth was just making conversation, but now he could see that Perth had knowledge about gamers. “It had half a billion viewers! Of course I did!”

“It was so great!” Perth exclaimed, sitting down on the couch next to King. “The chat was so fast I couldn’t keep up with it! And when he discovered that secret tunnel…I have been dying to get there myself! Have you made it there?”

“No, it was right before exam week, and since then I have been busy with a project Engineering was working on. It was to raise money to help the environment and then we took a trip to plant trees with the donations. I haven’t had time to play it yet.”

Perth turned a bit to look at Ram. “Are you a gamer too?”

Ram shook his head ‘no’. “I’ve never developed an interest in it.”

“That’s a shame. I bet we would make a heck of a team. I’ve never noticed any kind of twin telepathy between us, but gaming might bring it out. It could be so cool!” Perth turned back to King, “Do you believe that story about how he got his name?”

King laughed, “From taking care of that abandoned baby fox? No! Where’s the proof…there’s…”

“No pictures!” they said in unison, and then laughed.

“Right?!!!” Perth asked. “I debate this with my friends all the time! Pretty much everyone has a cell phone with a camera. Anybody close to James during the baby fox period could have taken a picture…but there’s none? Come on! It’s crazy! I guess it makes a good story, and he is undeniably the best streamer, so it’s whatever.”

King agreed and their talk switched to equipment.

“I noticed you had the HR/492. Do you prefer it over the HR/491?” Perth asked. “I still have the 491 and have been trying to decide whether I should upgrade or not.”

“Oh you definitely should! I sold my 491 online and used the money for a down payment. I know it is super expensive, but the options it comes with make it worth the price,” King said enthusiastically.

They continued to talk about equipment for a while and then they talked about all the different games that they either liked or disliked. They compared their highest scores and teased each other about their lowest ones. They were in the middle of a conversation about the lack of public tournaments in the area, when King happened to look in Ram’s direction and saw him sitting quietly, seemingly studying the ice cubes melting in his glass. King felt a wave of guilt. He had been so interested in the conversation that he had lost track of time. Ram had been left out and that made King feel awful.

King stood up, “I’m sorry! I was on my way to take a shower and I lost track of time. I’m going to go do that now and give you guys a chance to catch up, uninterrupted.”

Ram looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

King nodded, “I remember. I won’t.”

Perth, from his seat on the couch, watched the interchange between them. “Remember what? He didn’t say anything!”

King knew of no way to explain how he knew what Ram meant, he just always knew. “I’m not supposed to use my fingernails around the area that was stitched when I wash my hair,” he answered.

“Oh,” Perth said, with a slight frown, “I see.” He looked quickly at Ram and then back to King, who was turning to leave the room. “I wonder…” he began, and paused to wait for King to turn back. When King did, Perth continued, “Do you think many people would be interested in joining a private tournament if I set one up? I think I could round up some players…do you know any?”

King thought about it for a second, “Umm… Tee and Bohn, maybe. They are really into gaming.”

“Ting and Phu might be,” Ram offered, much to King’s surprise. He had no idea that they were gamers.

“Wow! Okay, that’s three teams right there! That is…I mean, you didn’t say you would, I was just assuming…” Perth seemed at a loss for words.

King looked at Ram to gauge if it would be okay with him. He really didn’t want to step on Ram’s toes, especially when it came to his brother. King couldn’t find an answer on Ram’s face, so he took it to mean the “no answer means yes” rule they had established ages ago. “Sure, count me in,” he agreed.

“Excellent! Combined, we have great stats! We’ll make a formidable team!” Perth said excitedly.

King looked back at Ram and saw his face was as expressionless as before. He could only assume that Ram was fine with it. He excused himself and headed for the bedroom.

He gathered up his clothes for his shower and then realized he had forgotten to tend to a few plants he had just recently moved into his bedroom. The room didn’t receive as much light and they were shade-loving plants that hadn’t done very well in the brighter areas of the condo.

He had brought his water glass with him, so he decided he would use it instead of going back into the kitchen to get the watering can.

He went into the bathroom and dropped off the stuff he would need after his shower and then filled up the water glass from the bathroom tap. He could hear the brothers talking so he made his way quietly back to the bedroom to avoid disturbing them.

As King was watering the first plant he heard Perth’s voice speaking to Ram, “So, come on! We are alone now; tell me the truth about you and P’King. I know there is more to it than what you said.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Ram answered. “Just what I said, he and I are friends…”

Perth laughed, “Ram! You have had the same friends since primary school. You don’t make new friends; that’s not one of your personality traits. I was home about six months ago and you were not friends with him then. I don’t understand how someone as introverted as you could make a new friend in such a short time and for the two of you to bond so closely that you move in with him!”

“I’m not living here. I am staying here temporarily,” Ram corrected.

King was quietly moving around the bedroom, watering the plants, but his interest was caught by the conversation. He knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

Perth laughed again, “You skirted around everything I asked you and hit on one little error. I am going to be blunt and just ask you: Are the two of you a couple?”

“I told you, we are friends. _Just_ friends,” Ram answered, his voice a bit firmer and louder than usual.

“Okay! Stop scowling at me! You can’t blame me for being interested in your life—we’re brothers! Do you at least find him attractive though?”

“Perth, for the last time, he and I are friends. And no, I don’t find him attractive—I don’t look at him that way! Now can we please change the subject?” Ram's answer was delivered faster and in a harsher tone than King had ever heard him speak before.

Perth laughed loudly, “If you don’t find him attractive, you must be blind! He is gorgeous! He’s so tall and lean, and that hair makes him look like a rock star. And the way he flips it back the way he does…like I said, you must be blind!”

King quietly returned to the bathroom and turned on the shower. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he tried to reason away. Of course Ram had answered that way because it was true. They were just friends. That’s all. He also remembered some old-wives-tale about people who eavesdrop never hearing good things about themselves. It was certainly true in this case.

He began to wash his hair and his mind was occupied with thoughts about the conversation that he had overheard. He forgot the warning from P’Thara about not using his fingernails. Luckily he had only skimmed over the tender new skin and the flash of pain reminded him very quickly. He checked for bleeding, saw that there was none, and continued on—but this time being much more careful.

He finished his shower and then returned to the bedroom. He quietly closed the bedroom door in an attempt to not hear Perth and Ram. He shut off the lights except for a small one on the other side of the bed, and lay down. He picked the side furthest from the door, and rolled on his side facing away from it.

He tried not to hear their voices, but even though he couldn’t tell what was being said, he could still hear them. Perth’s voice was higher and his speech was much faster than Ram’s, whose voice was deeper and more measured.

King closed his eyes and thought about what Ram had said earlier. He didn’t know why he felt stung by what Ram had said, but he did. He remembered the wording and the tone and realized although the wording was true—they were only friends—the tone was what stung. He had spoken as if being attracted to King was unimaginable.

He must have fallen asleep because he slowly became aware of someone in the bedroom with him. He heard the zipper on a bag being opened and someone rummaging around inside the bag. He didn’t need to turn to see who it was. It was Ram. King had given him part of the closet to hang his school uniforms, but hadn’t thought to give Ram a drawer for his other clothes. He excused himself for this omission by reminding himself of what Ram had told Perth earlier. They weren’t living together; Ram was only staying in the condo temporarily.

King heard Ram leave the bedroom and a short time later he heard the shower being turned on. He knew that Perth must have left and Ram was preparing for bed.

He tried to go back to sleep but before he could, Ram was back. He slid under the covers and turned off the light next to the bed. The room was plunged into darkness.

Ram shifted around a bit and then sighed. “I was never in love with Pin,” he said quietly.

King looked through the dark at the wall in front of him. He remembered when he first noticed Pin had liked all of Ram’s pictures and he had asked Ram if she were his girlfriend. It was the closest he had ever seen Ram come to a laugh. He also remembered when Ram told him his father was in an affair with his best friend, meaning her.

“I know,” King answered, because he believed it was true. And then he blurted out a question that he had never intended to ever ask Ram. “Have you ever been in love?”

There was only silence from Ram. King waited for an answer, knowing that Ram couldn’t have fallen asleep that quickly. His heart began to race when he realized what the silence meant: No answer means yes.

He felt Ram turn on his side and he knew that Ram was looking at King’s back. “Once”, he answered.

King felt sick inside. He wanted to know who it was and what happened but a bigger part of him didn’t want to know. He had heard that very evening how Ram viewed love. He believed it was forever and that you should never cause pain to the one you loved. King concluded that whomever it was that Ram loved had probably hurt Ram deeply. And Ram was probably still in love with the person. King ground his teeth together. He hated the unknown person with a white-hot intensity that he had never felt before. He was surprised that he was capable of feeling such rage.

Ram continued lying on his side for a long time. Finally he rolled over onto his back and soon after was breathing deeply. King knew that he had fallen asleep. He tried to will himself to fall back asleep. Instead he lay awake, staring at the wall for hours.


	3. Chapter 3

King woke up to his phone’s alarm that he had set before going to bed the night before. He groaned as he rolled over to grab his phone and shut off the alarm. He felt as if he hadn’t slept at all. He rubbed his eyes and the memory of the night before came rushing back. He sighed and looked at the other side of the bed. It was empty. Ram was already awake.

King listened intently and could hear no sounds in the condo. Not that Ram ever made much noise, but King knew by the feeling in the atmosphere that Ram wasn’t there.

He got out of bed and made it quickly. As he was plumping Ram’s pillow, he was hit with a trace of Ram’s scent. Without thinking about it, King brought the pillow up to his nose and breathed in deeply. In mid-inhale, he realized how odd it was to do such a thing and he quickly put the pillow back. He finished making the bed and then grabbed his clothes for the day. He hurried off to the shower, not really wanting to face the pounding water but knowing it was the only thing that would wake him up.

After a quick shower and getting dressed for the day, King was still dragging. He made his way into the kitchen and found that Ram had made coffee. He sighed happily and poured himself a cup. As he sipped the hot coffee, he looked around the kitchen. The bottles of liquor and bags of snacks were stacked neatly on the counter beside the refrigerator. King walked into the living room and looked around. It was spotless. Ram had cleaned up the mess from the night before.

As he was looking around the living room, he heard the door to the condo open. Ram walked in, carrying some bags from a take-out restaurant. “Breakfast,” he said.

King nodded and followed him into the kitchen. “Thanks for making the coffee and cleaning everything up.”

Ram looked at him with a puzzled look, “Perth was my guest.” He opened up the bags and placed the food on the table.

When King saw the food, his stomach gave a small growl. He hadn’t even realized he was hungry.

“I don’t usually eat breakfast,” King stated.

Ram gave him a glare and then dished up the food for them. “Eat!” he commanded.

After they ate breakfast, Ram gave King back the keys to the car and King drove them to the college. They rode mostly in silence because King was still tired from the lack of sleep from the night before. And his mind didn’t give him a moment’s peace from replaying everything he had heard—first in the conversation he eavesdropped on between the brothers, and then later, Ram’s admission that he loved someone. He sighed as he parked the car in the student parking lot. He looked at the keys in his hand for a moment.

“Cool Boy, this is one of my long days. It is a short one for you, right?”

Ram nodded as an answer.

“You should take the car then,” he said and turned to hand Ram the keys.

“I can take the bus,” Ram objected.

King felt irritated, but tried to squelch it. “No. I won’t need it while I am sitting in a classroom. Use it to do errands or whatever, just come back to get me after school, okay?”

Ram nodded and took the keys. They walked together for a short time and then their paths took them in different directions. They didn’t even say ‘goodbye’ to each other. King was frowning as he walked up the path. He was thinking about how that was even more evidence of the changes that had happened in their relationship. And he didn’t like it.

As he approached the quad, he saw his friends all sitting at their usual table, so he made his way over to them.

“Hey King!” Boss called, “Why the frown? Are you constipated?”

King stopped in his tracks while everyone at the table turned to look at Boss in shock.

“What?” Boss asked. “You are making the same face that Mek does when he is constipated.”

Mek reached over and playfully smacked Boss’ arm, “Why are you telling everybody that?!”

“It’s true!”

“But they don’t have to know it!” Mek argued.

King walked up to the table and took his customary seat. “No, I’m not constipated! I have a headache.”

“Well, I knew it was something. Mek has some pain relievers in his bag,” Boss offered. Mek unzipped his bag and pulled out the bottle and handed it to King. King shook a couple of the pills out and returned the bottle to Mek.

“I was on the phone with Duen yesterday…” Bohn began, and the group all said “AWWW!” in unison. Bohn shook his head; his face was a bit pink, “Shut up. I was going to say that while we were talking, Ram brought his dogs over there for Duen to keep overnight so you wouldn’t have any stress. He said you were getting your stitches removed.”

“Ram did what?” Tee asked. “What would Ram’s dogs have anything to do with your stress levels? Unless…is he, I mean… are you two living together now? I know you arrived at the bus the same time on the day of the trip, and I didn’t believe the story that you ran into each other in the parking lot…but I didn’t suspect you were living together already.”

King turned to look at Tee, “What do you mean ‘already’?”

“You’re dating…right?” Tee looked as if he wished he hadn’t said anything.

King looked around and saw that everyone was listening with rapt attention. “No, we’re not dating. We’re friends. He’s been going through some things and so I invited him to stay at the condo.”

“With his dogs?” Boss asked.

“Yes, with his dogs,” King answered sharply. “What’s with all the questions?”

“No reason”, “Nothing at all”, “Nope, no reason”, came from the group all at once.

King sighed and turned to Bohn, “Yeah, I had my stitches taken out yesterday, to answer the question I think you were going to ask before we got sidetracked.”

Bohn leaned forward a bit, “Later on I was on the phone with Duen again, and don’t give me the ‘AWWW’s!’” he ordered everyone. “Anyway, he told me that Ram’s twin brother was back. I didn’t even know he had a twin brother!”

King shook his head, “I didn’t either, until yesterday.”

“He has a twin brother and he never told you about him?” Boss asked. “That’s weird! Seems like he would have mentioned him to you.”

King shrugged, “Ram’s not really a talker.”

“Yeah, I think we all have noticed that,” Boss said with a grin. “So, do you know anything about him now? The brother, I mean.”

King nodded, “A bit. He was at the condo last night visiting Ram. His name is Perth.”

“From what Duen said, they are identical. So much so that he likes to trick people and make them think he’s Ram.” Bohn said.

King immediately flashed back to when he turned around from the refrigerator, with juice bottles in his hand, to face the stranger with Ram’s face. “Yeah,” he nodded, “I think he probably does.”

Mek got up from the table. “We have a few minutes before class. I’m going to get some juice. Do you want some so you can take the headache pills?” he asked King. King nodded and reached for his wallet. “No, that’s okay,” Mek said, “I’ll pay for it.”

“Hey! Where was this generosity last night when I wanted potato chips?” Boss called to Mek’s retreating back.

Mek had reached the machine and turned around after placing the money in the slot, “I took you in, the least you can do is buy your own potato chips!” he called.

Boss roared with laughter. “Some considerate husband you are!”

Mek returned to the table and handed King the juice. “Here, take the tablets. You are looking a bit pale.”

“Do your nephews ever try to trick people into thinking they are the other one?” Tee asked.

King unscrewed the lid to the juice bottle. “No, it doesn’t work on them. They don’t realize it but one of them has a prominent freckle on his cheekbone. We can spot the differences in them immediately.”

King popped the tablets into his mouth and took a big drink of the juice to wash them down.

“I wonder if that is why Ram got tattoos,” Boss mused.

King choked on the juice. Tee was the one closest to him so he pounded King’s back until King nodded for him to stop.

He remembered feeling Ram sigh against his back when Perth said he had a lifetime supply of fake tattoos that matched his. King thought that Boss was probably right.

The day passed slowly. During lunch, Boss and Mek sat side-by-side, doing cute, coupley things; Bohn was on his phone texting with Duen; and Tee was on his phone playing a game. King tried to do his homework so he wouldn’t have it hanging over his head once he got home. He found himself doodling Ram’s dream catcher tattoo in his notebook instead. Once he realized what he had drawn, he quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. They hadn’t so he hurriedly closed his notebook and put it back into his checkered bag. He pulled out his phone and played a game.

Later, they had a half-hour break before their last class. The rest of the guys headed outside while King opted to stay in and do the homework that he had planned on getting done during the lunch break. He had just gotten into it when Boss jogged up to him.

“Hey! Ram’s out here and says he needs to see you.”

King immediately gathered his papers together and shoved them into his bag. He was worried about Ram being there. He was due to pick King up in a couple of hours, so if he was there now, something must be wrong. He joined Boss and they hurried outside together. A few feet from the table, he stopped in his tracks.

“That’s not Ram,” he announced to the group. “That’s Perth.”

Everyone turned to look at Perth in shock. Perth laughed and peeled off the fake tattoo and raked his fringe back down over his forehead. “It’s amazing how you do that!” he said to King.

King looked more closely at him and saw that he was wearing one of Ram’s school uniforms. He frowned at that. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see if you had told your friends about our tournament.”

“Uh…well, no. I mean, you just mentioned a possibility. I didn’t know that you were seriously thinking about having one,” King answered, a bit confused.

“Not me, we. You did agree to be my partner, remember? So the tournament is ours. Anyway,” he turned his attention away from King and addressed the group. “We are both gamers and King said that some of you are, too. We are going to set up a group for a private tournament. We haven’t really decided anything concrete yet; I am just here to gauge interest.”

“Count me it!” Tee answered quickly.

“Me too!” Bohn agreed and then paused. “Maybe I should talk to Duen about it first though. In the meantime, just pencil my name in.”

“Duen?” Perth asked with a laugh. “Ram’s best friend, Duen?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Bohn answered aggressively.

Perth held up his hands, “Nothing! I’ve known him since he was a kid. Nice guy.” He turned to look at King, “That makes it cozy, doesn’t it? Your friend and Ram’s best friend, like one big, happy family.”

King was aware of the darting glances everyone was exchanging at the table. Perth seemed not to notice as his attention was firmly on King.

King shrugged, “I guess so. We are all friends now. In fact, we just came back from a trip to the mountains that we took together.”

Perth nodded with a slight smirk, “The flower crown picture that Ting posted. Yes, well…” he looked at Mek and Boss, “How about the two of you? Interested in joining the tournament?”

“Yes!” Boss answered enthusiastically.

“No!” Mek stated firmly, causing everyone to look in their direction. “We won’t have time for that.”

Boss studied Mek’s face for a moment and then smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. I forgot for a second that we have plans.”

“We haven’t set any dates or times, so how do you know that you have plans?” Perth asked with a slight edge in his voice.

Mek shrugged, “All our time for a while is booked up.”

“What is it?” Tee asked with a grin. “What’s the secret?”

Boss shifted a bit, “It’s not exactly a secret; we just weren’t going to say anything about it for a while.” He and Mek exchanged glances and then Mek gave a nod. “Okay,” Boss agreed, “But you tell them.”

Mek nodded, “As you all know, Boss left his parents’ house and moved into my place. It was small for just me, so with him also being there, it just wasn’t big enough for both of us…”

“So we rented a much bigger place!” Boss interrupted.

“I thought you were going to let me tell them!” Mek objected.

“You’re too slow. Anyway,” he said, looking away from Mek and looking at their friends, “We have to fix it up. Furniture, curtains…everything. So we will be busy with that for a while.”

The group congratulated them and peppered them with questions about their new place.

“The most difficult part of it for me is that green is his favorite color, so everything we get is green,” Mek complained jokingly.

Boss looked taken aback. “Green isn’t my favorite color! In fact, I’m not that fond of it.”

“Then why does everything have to be green?” Mek asked in a shocked tone.

“Because the floor is brown,” Boss explained.

Mek studied Boss’ face for a moment, and after giving up hope for more information, asked, “So?”

Boss rolled his eyes, “Brown and green—they go together. Like the soil and the grass. Understand?”

“NO!!” Mek fairly screamed the answer. “Brown is a neutral! It goes with anything. Think about it. You have brown hair—are you only allowed to wear green shirts?”

“Oh,” Boss said quietly. “I guess that’s true. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Mek sighed dramatically. “What exactly is your favorite color?”

“Blue,” Boss said with a smile. “All shades of it!”

Mek leaned over and gave Boss a playful flip on the forehead with his fingers. “Blue is my favorite color, too! So…our home should have lots of blue in it, not green!” He turned to the group, “This means our week is going to be twice as busy now. First we have to return all the green things we already have and exchange them for blue, and then continue from there! But we will be rooting for all of you!”

Bohn sighed and leaned down to rest his chin on his clasped hands that were lying on the table. “You are so lucky. Duen says he won’t move in with me until we have been together for a year. A whole year!”

King grinned at him, “It could have been worse—he could have said not until after graduation. And since he is pre-med, that would be at least five years from now.”

Bohn groaned and hid his face. The friends laughed but Perth rolled his eyes and gave a small shake of his head. “P’King, you know everyone’s contact info, right? We’ll arrange for some kind of group chat this evening to get things moving. I’ll leave these two for your list. Now I have to be going. I have lots of old friends I think might be interested in a tournament. I need to locate them and this campus is huge!”

As soon as Perth walked away, one of them noticed it was almost time for class to start, so they hurried into the building. In the classroom, they took their usual places, King in the middle between Bohn and Tee, with Boss and Mek sitting directly behind them.

The professor had begun her lecture when Tee, who had been sitting silently with a pen in his hand, but not taking any notes, suddenly leaned over towards King. “How did you know he was Perth and not Ram?” he whispered.

King was aware of Boss and Mek leaning forward to hear. Bohn had also leaned in closer. King shrugged, “I can tell them apart.”

“Yeah, that’s obvious, but how? I’ve never seen two people look more alike in my life. It’s like they are the same person.”

King could hear quiet “um-hmms” from his friends. He again shrugged, “I can’t explain it; I just know.”

Tee gave a small nod, “Okay, it’s a ‘King’ thing, I understand. I really thought the fake tattoo was creepy. That was a deliberate attempt to look more like Ram.”

King turned his attention fully on Tee. “It is creepy, isn’t it? And even creepier, he told Ram he has a lifetime supply of them!”

“He is up to something,” Mek said in a low voice. “I wonder what it is.”

“It seems like he actually wants to _be_ Ram!” Bohn declared.

“Gentlemen, if you have finished your conversation, I would like to continue teaching now,” the professor said sternly.

When class finally ended two hours later, the guys left the classroom in relative silence. They were always like this on their long days, but as soon as they exited the building, their spirits seemed to slowly start to return. For all of them except King. He was still tired from not getting enough sleep the night before, so he still felt like he was dragging.

Boss and Mek took the lead on the walk to the parking lot. Tee, King, and Bohn followed close behind.

“Do you need a ride home?” Tee asked King. “I know your car has been in the shop for ages.”

King shook his head ‘no’. “I got it back right before our camping trip. Ram took it today and he is picking me up.”

Everyone paused and looked at King. “Ram has your car?” Boss asked in surprise.

“Well, yeah. He had a short day so he took it and is picking me up. Why?”

Everyone shrugged or mumbled, “No reason”, and continued on their way down the path.

Mek and Boss hurried ahead of the rest of them, parts of their conversation filtered back to the trio bringing up the rear. It sounded like they were discussing curtains verses blinds. Bohn was texting Duen as he walked and Tee was keeping an eye on Bohn to make sure he wouldn’t fall or bump into something. King was listening to the sounds of the leaves stirring in the wind and the tiny chirps of hidden lizards calling out to each other. King imagined they were warning the other lizards of the presence of humans on the path.

Mek and Boss suddenly hurried back to them. “Ram’s in the parking lot!” Boss announced excitedly.

King gave a combination of a nod and a shrug. He had just told them Ram was coming to pick him up. He couldn’t understand the excitement.

“He’s not alone. Perth is there too.” Mek explained. “They are standing, facing each other, and it looks like a person looking into a mirror!”

“We were wondering, who wants to make a bet on if King can tell the difference between them this far away. With a time limit to look at them of…ten seconds, maybe?” Boss suggested with a grin.

With a prospect of a bet, everyone’s mood suddenly shifted into high gear. Even King felt as if he had gotten his second wind.

“I want to take a look for myself before I bet,” Tee stated. He turned to King, “Stay here! No cheating!”

King laughed, “I won’t! I swear!”

Bohn said, “Wait for me, Tee! I want to look, too!” He slid his phone into his back pocket before hurrying over to Tee. They walked down the path a few feet and stopped.

They looked at the parking lot and then hurried back to the group, laughing. “That’s a sucker’s bet! There is no way King can tell them apart from that distance!” Bohn announced.

“I think he can,” Boss said with a grin.

Mek elbowed him. “Are you crazy? We are watching every Baht right now!”

Boss shrugged, “Like I said, I think he can.”

Mek looked at Tee, “What do you think?”

Tee shrugged. “I really don’t think he can. I know there is no way I could. They are standing the same way and they are both wearing the school uniform. Like you said, it is like a person looking into a mirror!”

“Okay, just a small bet then, 200 Baht. I say King _can_ tell them apart. Who wants to bet he can’t?” Boss challenged.

“Let’s make sure that we all agree on the terms,” Tee said. “King has to look from that spot on the path, next to the rock. And he has to announce his guess in ten seconds. All agree?”

“Wait! How will we know if he guesses correctly or not?” Bohn interjected.

“Mek and I will go down there and tell Ram that King was a bit delayed but is on his way. We’ll know by whoever answers.” Boss offered. “And we can signal to you guys up here with a thumbs up if King is correct or a thumbs down if he isn’t.”

“But…um…” Tee started and then looked at King apologetically before continuing. “We all know that Ram doesn’t always talk. What if neither of them says anything? How will you know then?”

Boss shrugged, “Then I’ll just ask them which one is Ram.”

All eyes turned to King. By unspoken agreement, Tee was the one chosen to speak. “What do you think, Bro? Can you do it?”

King shrugged. “I really don’t know. That’s a pretty far distance and a really short time limit.”

Tee nodded, “I will bet that he can’t do it.”

Bohn bet that he couldn’t either. Then it was Mek’s turn. He sighed, “Sorry Boss. I just don’t think he can.”

Boss nodded, “So the three of you are a no, and I am a yes. King, do you want in on it?”

King shook his head. “No, I’ll be neutral, that way you all will know for sure it is fair.”

“Okay,” Boss nodded, “And one more stipulation—the winner or winners get paid first thing tomorrow morning. No squirming out of it!”

Bohn playfully took a mock swing at Boss’s chin, missing it by millimeters, “You will be the one who loses and you are always the one who tries to squirm out of paying off your bets!”

“Turn around,” Tee ordered King.

“What? Why?”

“So you can’t peek. Lean against my back and I will guide you to the rock.”

King nodded and turned around and leaned his back against Tee’s. “Who is going to be the time keeper?” Tee asked.

Mek agreed to do it and pulled out his phone and selected the app. The group made their way down the path. When they stopped, King could see the big rock out of the corner of his eye.

“Okay, spread out everybody. Make sure King has a spot free from any obstructions. You ready Mek?” Tee asked.

When Mek signaled that the clock had started, King stepped out from behind Tee and looked into the parking lot. He looked from one of the twins to the other. He said, “The one on my right is Ram; the one on my left is Perth.” He gestured to them with his hands as he named them.

Mek stopped the clock, “4.9 seconds.”

“Just because he made his guess fast doesn’t mean that he is right,” Bohn said, glaring at a grinning Boss.

“Doesn’t mean he is wrong, either!” Boss countered.

“Well! Hurry down there and let us know before they switch positions and we have to start over,” Tee ordered. Boss and Mek sped away from them, headed towards Ram and Perth in the parking lot.

“You should probably duck behind us a bit,” Bohn suggested. “In case one of them looks up here since you are supposed to be delayed inside.”

King nodded and stepped behind them. He peeked out between their shoulders and watched Boss and Mek approach the twins. The brothers both turned toward Boss when he spoke to them. Mek positioned himself to where his back was facing the guys on the path and he pulled one arm behind his back to ready it to send the signal.

King saw the one he had identified as Ram answered Boss. Mek closed his hand and reluctantly gave the group a thumbs up.

Bohn turned his shocked face to King. “How did you know?”

King shrugged and stepped from behind the two of them. “I don’t know. I just did. Don’t forget to pay Boss in the morning. He is the only one who had any faith in me!” He grinned and then hurried down the path.

Boss and Mek had left before King reached the car. “Hi!” he greeted Ram, “Sorry it took me so long!”

Ram just smiled and started to hand over the keys.

“No, that’s okay, you can drive. I am exhausted. And starving!”

“Great!” Perth said, walking towards the car. “I’m starving, too. Dad has given me a fistful of hush money. Name the place; dinner’s on me!”

Ram took his place in the driver’s seat with King next to him on the passenger side. Perth took the backseat and positioned himself so that he could see King.

The sun was starting to go down so it set up a glare from the road. King took his sunglasses from the console where he always kept them and slid them on. Ram pulled his sunglasses from the visor and put them on.

Perth wasn’t bothered by the glare. He chatted on and on about the people who had said they were interested in the tournament. King inwardly sighed. He liked playing games but he was starting to wish that he hadn’t agreed to any of this. Perth continued talking, hardly pausing to take a breath, as they drove along.

When they approached their usual restaurant, King was puzzled when Ram didn’t slow down. Instead he drove past it without seeming to even cast a glance in that direction. Since Ram was wearing sunglasses, King couldn’t read his eyes. Instead, in between his occasional, vague, “um-hmm” responses to Perth, King studied Ram’s posture. He was sitting very rigidly with his back pressed firmly against the seat. His knuckles were white from how tightly he was holding the steering wheel. There was a muscle tensing and releasing in his jaw.

King knew that their usual place was actually Ram’s place that he had shared with King. He didn’t want to share it with Perth. He wanted to keep it for himself.

King didn’t know how he knew this; he just knew it.


	4. Chapter 4

Ram chose a restaurant very close to the college campus. Its menu featured a mixture of East meets West choices. It was a very popular hangout spot for the students at the college. King was vaguely surprised that Ram even knew about the place because it was the exact opposite of his favorite restaurant.

As the entered and found a vacant table, Perth was looking around the room excitedly. “Now this is _my_ kind of place! No one under 18 and no one over 30! I never pictured you in a place like this! I figured you would go to some dinky, little hole-in-the-wall, family restaurant,” he fairly shouted to Ram over the loud music that was playing. He raised his hand and waved over a waiter. “I’d like to order a round of drinks before you bring the menus,” he instructed.

King shook his head. “None for me thanks.”

Both Ram and Perth looked at him in surprise.

“Uh…I didn’t sleep well last night. I think even one drink would knock me right out,” he explained. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks as images from the last time he had drank around Ram flashed in his mind. He pushed those thoughts away quickly. He extended his hand to Ram. “Give me the keys. I will be the designated driver tonight. You two can feel free to enjoy yourselves.”

Ram pulled the car keys from his pocket and handed them to King. He raised an eyebrow slightly. King nodded to him, “Yes, I’m sure,” he said.

Later, when they made their dinner selections, Ram and King both ordered from the East cuisine side of the menu and Perth ordered from the West side. It really wasn’t that surprising, considering Perth lived in the UK, but King thought it was another small thing that was different between Perth and Ram. Although they looked alike, they were two very different people.

Throughout dinner, Perth was in and out of his seat, greeting old friends and flirting with girls. When he was at the table, often people would stop by to chat with him. A few of the girls seemed fascinated when they saw the twins sitting side-by-side. Most seemed to gravitate more to Ram, who steadfastly ignored them and concentrated on his food. Perth collected their LINE numbers and made jokes about his brother’s disinterest in them.

At one point, the joking/insults became too much for King. “He is in a serious relationship and doesn’t believe in flirting. If you were in a relationship and you knew that your boyfriend was that faithful to you, even behind your back, you would be grateful, wouldn’t you?”

At that time there were four girls standing around the table. They all fell silent and the grin slowly slid away from Perth’s face. Ram quickly looked up from his plate to stare at King. King imagined it was because Ram was shocked to hear King lie like that.

“I would,” one of the girls admitted. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know or I wouldn’t have teased you.”

Ram gave a small nod and looked back down at his plate.

“What about you?” another of the girls asked King. “You aren’t one of the twins, but you’re kinda hot.”

“He’s taken too,” Ram mumbled.

King looked at Ram and then back to the girl, “Uh…yeah, sorry. Perth is the only one of us who is single.”

Perth was glaring at them, “Since when are you both in these deeply involved relationships?”

“Recently,” King answered without hesitation. “That’s why you hadn’t heard yet.”

Perth scowled momentarily and then his face took on the huge grin he had been wearing earlier. He turned back to the girls, “Well, there you have it. I am the only single man here!” He laughed, “Maybe one of you can help me change my status so I can be a good boy, like these two!”

Perth kept the drinks flowing during dinner. Ram stopped drinking after the third one, but Perth continued without him. When they were finally preparing to leave, Tee walked in. He hurried over to their table.

“Hey! So I spoke to Bohn and Duen is cool with it. You can put us down as a definite pair,” he told Perth.

Perth rolled his eyes at the mention of Duen. He shook his head and then his face took back on his regular smile. He signaled to the waiter. “This calls for a drink!”

King happened to glance at Ram and saw that he had a ghost of a smile on his face as he attempted to avoid making eye contact with anyone at the table.

The waiter came with drinks for Perth and Tee, and took Tee’s dinner order. Perth and Tee had their heads together to hear each other over the loud music. King could pick up bits and pieces of the conversation and realized they were talking about the tournament. King was sitting across from Ram so he couldn’t really get any closer to him to whisper. But he was dying to know the reason behind the faces Perth made whenever Duen’s name was mentioned. He had noticed it several times and when he saw the smile on Ram’s lips, he felt certain it was because of Perth’s reaction.

King excused himself from the table to go to the restroom. When he returned he saw that Tee’s dinner had arrived, and although he was eating, he and Perth still maintained their conversation.

King grabbed his chair and pulled it to the end of the table so that he could sit next to Ram. Ram looked at him with a bit of confusion on his face.

“Why does Perth make a face whenever Duen’s name is mentioned?” he asked as he leaned in closer to Ram.

Ram’s lips quirked a bit as he fought a smile. He shrugged.

“You know. I know you know! Tell me!” King urged.

Ram looked down the table where Perth and Tee were still in deep conversation. He leaned toward King and said in a low voice, “Perth always liked Duen. Duen never liked Perth.”

King looked at Ram for a moment and studied his eyes. “You don’t mean ‘like’ as just a friend, do you?”

Ram quirked an eyebrow. “Duen never even liked him as a friend.”

King leaned back in his chair and looked down the table at Perth. “Wow. And Perth is super bitter about it” he said and Ram nodded. King continued, “It all makes sense now. You should have seen his reaction when Bohn said he had to discuss the tournament with Duen before he could agree to play.” He thought back to the story Perth had told Ram about why he had left school to escape the consequences of throwing the whiskey bottle through a window. “You don’t think Perth would do anything to cause them trouble, do you?”

Ram shook his head. “They’re solid since the trip. Plus, Bohn’s a big guy.”

King stared at Ram in amazement. This was the most Ram had ever talked at one time to him. He struggled to think of something else to say to keep the conversation going. He was enjoying it.

“Hey, you two!” Perth called with a laugh. “Didn’t you hear me yelling at you? Do you want anything else?”

The waiter was standing next to Perth, looking at them, waiting expectantly. Both King and Ram indicated that they were finished. The waiter walked off to get Perth and Tee another round of drinks.

“Why don’t you guys scoot down here a bit closer? I feel like we have been leaving you out of the conversation,” Perth suggested.

King was very reluctant to join them. He looked at Ram and saw in his eyes he felt the same way. Nevertheless they moved to the chairs closer to Perth and Tee.

For close to an hour, Tee and Perth discussed all the aspects of setting up a tournament. Neither of them had ever done it before, but they both had heard of others who had. King added a few things to the conversation, but Ram remained silent. After a final round of drinks for Tee and Perth, they left the restaurant. They offered Tee a ride, but he declined. He wanted to take the short walk back to the dorms to clear his head a bit.

King took the wheel and Ram was in the passenger seat. Perth returned to the backseat, this time at the other side of it so he had King in his sights.

“You guys will have to tell me how to get to your parents’ place; I’ve never been there,” King said.

“Why?” Perth asked. “I’m going back to the condo with you. I’ve scheduled a group chat for about a half hour from now. We need to all discuss and agree on the details so we can get this tournament started. I have to be with you when we finalize all of this. We are in this together.”

King quickly glanced at Ram and saw his knuckles were white and his jaw muscle was again clenching and unclenching.

King was a huge fan of gaming, but he was already sick of this tournament—and it hadn’t even started yet. With an inward sigh, he drove them all back to the condo.

When King unlocked the condo door, the dogs began to bark. King hadn’t been aware that they were back. He realized that Ram must have brought them back that afternoon while King was still in class.

“Stop!” Ram ordered and the barking stopped immediately. He looked at King for a moment. King nodded to show him that it was still fine with him that the dogs were in the condo.

“Walk time,” Ram said, jerking his head toward the door, indicating he meant for the dogs. King nodded and then scurried into the kitchen. Perth followed King.

“Do we still have any of the liquor I brought yesterday?”

King showed him where Ram had stacked his snacks and alcohol next to the refrigerator. He got Perth a glass from the cabinet and watched as Perth prepared himself a drink. He could hear Ram and the dogs as they left the condo.

“You moved pretty quickly when Ram said he was going to walk the dogs. I don’t think you are fond of them,” Perth commented with a grin and then took a drink from his glass.

“That’s not strictly true. It’s not that I am not fond of them…they seem like good dogs. Ram controls them beautifully. It’s just…well…I’m, uh…I’m afraid of dogs.”

Perth had to put his hand over his mouth to keep from spitting out his drink. He recovered a bit, swallowed the liquor, and then lowered his hand. “Then why on earth did you allow him to bring three huskies into this tiny condo?!!”

King paused, trying to think of a way to phrase it, he shrugged. “Ram and his dogs come as a package deal. He loves them and they love him. So…they all stay here.”

“I’m sure he could take them somewhere else…Duen’s or even back home. Ruj would take care of them,” Perth argued with a scowl. “There is no reason for you to be afraid in your own home.”

“I’m not afraid! Like I said, Ram controls them. And he did offer to take them somewhere else. I said ‘no’. I want Ram to have his dogs with him,” King explained.

Perth studied King’s face for a moment with a frown. Then he gave a small nod and turned to look around the kitchen. “Do you have a laptop or something? We need to start the group chat soon. We could do it on our phones…”

“I have one. I’ll go get it. Take what you want from here and I’ll meet you in the living room,” King hurried off to the bedroom to fetch his laptop. When he returned, he found that Perth had brought in his drink, an almost full bottle of liquor, and some chips and he was lounging on the couch. King could tell by the supplies and his posture that Perth had settled in for a long evening. King gave a sigh as the thought of that made him more aware of how tired he was from the lack of sleep the night before.

Perth held out his hand and King handed him the laptop. In no time, Perth had a chat open and was inviting people to it from a list he had compiled earlier. King supplied information for Tee and Bohn. He had the information for Ting and Phu, too, but Perth didn’t need it since he had known them before he left for the UK.

By the time everyone had entered the chat, Ram had arrived back at the condo. He put the dogs in the spare bedroom and then joined Perth and King in the living room. He was only there for a bit before he excused himself and went to the bedroom. He emerged a few minutes later carrying his backpack.

“For the gym,” he said when he saw King eyeing his backpack.

“Gym?” King asked. He wasn’t aware that Ram had a membership to a gym. But then again, he knew he didn’t know everything about Ram.

Ram gave a small nod and was gone before King could ask anything else.

King was soon caught up in the chat as everyone was excitedly talking about the tournament. A few people asked if they could invite friends not on the list to join in the chat, as word of the tournament had spread. After talking it over with King, Perth decided to allow it. What had originally started with twenty pairs had grown to over thirty, and even more people were requesting to be allowed in.

“I had no idea so many people would want to do this,” Perth said with a huge grin and sparkling eyes.

“You really had a great idea!” King congratulated him.

“I can’t take all the credit; you helped me with it, so it is our idea!”

King shook his head, “No, I would have never thought to put on a tournament. I would have just found a spot on a tournament online if I wanted to play. This is all you!”

Perth beamed and then poured himself another drink. He peeked at the chat for a minute while he drank. He sat his empty glass down on the table and draped a friendly arm across King’s shoulders. King startled and found himself, oddly, looking toward the door to see if Ram was there. He wasn’t.

“I’ve heard that you are the smartest person in the entire university…” Perth said.

King noticed that Perth had a slight slur to his words and realized Perth was feeling the liquor a bit. King understood then why he was being a bit too friendly. He turned toward him as he casually removed Perth’s arm from his shoulders. “No, sorry, you heard incorrectly. I might have the highest grades of my year’s Engineering students, perhaps. I’m not even sure about that.”

Perth waved away his objections, “I need your super brain for this next part. We need to compare platforms and find the best one to host the event for us. I think you are the one who is better suited for this part of the project.”

King took the laptop and opened another window on it to begin his search. Perth opened the chat on his phone and continued with the group chat. He kept King informed of what was going on in there.

King was a bit overwhelmed with the task he had been given. He didn’t know anything about hosting a tournament or finding a host site. When Perth had included him as co-host, he had hoped to take a backseat in the planning. But somehow he was now in charge. He frowned as he tried to figure out how that had happened. From the corner of his eye, he saw Perth pouring himself another drink and King sighed. Perth really wasn’t in any shape to do it, and it obviously had to be done. He gave a slight nod; he realized that was why he found himself in charge.

Once he determined the correct search criteria, and that had taken him more than a few tries, he quickly located a site. He printed off hard copies of the information for both he and Perth and saved a digital copy to post on the chat later when they had other host pages for comparison.

He went down the search list and managed to find three more hosts. For each of the sites, he printed out hard copies of their terms and made digital copies of them, too.

“I think these four are enough,” Perth said with a drink in his hand and a very noticeable slur in his words.

“Yeah, that’s all I could find, anyway,” King said with a sigh as he closed the other window and went back to the chat. “Maybe you should go easy on the booze. We have a lot of decisions to make.”

“I’m fine,” Perth insisted, and to prove it, he downed the contents in his glass and poured another drink. Mentally King tried to count all the drinks Perth had had, but he was unsure. He hadn’t paid much attention earlier.

King posted the information about the four sites on the chat. Everyone had an opinion and seldom agreed with anyone else. The squabbles were not mean-spirited and in fact, some were actually funny. Perth and King were laughing together when Ram arrived back home from the gym.

Ram’s face was flushed and his hair was fluffy from being freshly washed. King could smell the clean scent of soap and shampoo and knew that Ram had showered after his workout. He was wearing his black tank top with the pants he liked to sleep in the most. King grinned at him when he realized that Ram was basically wearing his pajamas.

“Did you have a good workout?” King asked. He was trying not to look at Ram’s exposed tattoos but it was difficult. King liked tattoos; even wanted some himself—but his fear of needles prevented him from getting any. He really liked Ram’s tattoos but he kept most of them covered. Usually the only one that was visible was his dream catcher tattoo behind his ear. Thinking about the ones that were still covered by his sleeveless shirt made King’s throat feel itchy. He grabbed for his glass of water and took a huge drink. As soon as he sat the glass down, he realized how that must have looked to Ram. Like King was thirsty for him, or something. King felt his face grow hot and quickly looked away from him.

“Yeah,” Ram answered. “It was. How’re things going?”

“Ugh! Just awful!” Perth answered. “We found four, perfectly good, host sites and now everyone in the chat is arguing over which one is the best. And more people keep entering the chat and adding their opinions to the mix. On the bright side, it looks like I seriously underestimated the interest I would get in this tournament. I think we have…how many teams now?” Perth turned to King for the answer.

King looked at the notes he had been making. “Uh…It looks like probably between 38 to 40 teams. But that is just an estimate. We won’t know until we pick a host site and people sign up properly.”

Perth nodded. “Once we pick the host site, we need to set a time limit on when people can join. There has to be a cut off time or people will be trying to join after it has already started.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” King said as he quickly scribbled it down in his notes.

“How much longer?” Ram asked.

“Oh…pssh! Hours, I’m sure. There is so much to do!” Perth said, the slur in his words was more pronounced than it had been.

Ram looked at King and then looked toward the bedroom. King nodded, “Sure, it’s okay. Go ahead and go to bed. I’ll drive Perth home when we are done.”

“No! No, wait, wait, wait!” Perth said as he reclined back against the back of the couch. He patted the seat next to him. “Come! Have a drink with me before you go to bed. Your roomie won’t, so you should. To be hospitable, ya know?”

Ram shook his head. “Long day tomorrow. You sound like you’ve had enough, too.”

Perth snorted, “How old are the two of you? Go on, go to bed, Grandma!”

Shortly after Ram went to bed, King’s tiredness caught up with him. He had to work hard to keep from becoming irritable. Perth kept drinking and playing around in the chat and it didn’t seem like they were getting any decisions made.

“So…I would like to discuss the cost of hosting this tournament…” King began.

Perth waved his hand. “No worries! My dad is covering it.” He pulled out his wallet and removed a credit card and laid it on the table next to the laptop.

“Okay…another thing I was thinking about. Suppose we charge everybody a sign-up fee and use that money for prizes for the top three teams.”

Perth sat up a bit and blinked a few times at King. “Hey! You really are a genius! That’s great! How much do you think we should charge?”

King picked up his note pad and began to do some calculations. He spoke to Perth while he worked, trying to get input from him. Perth wasn’t much help. At first he just said “Um-hmm” as an answer, but then later, King was getting no reply. In frustration, after asking the same question a couple of times, King turned around and saw that Perth had passed out.

King tried to wake him up numerous times, but Perth would not budge. King shook his head angrily and looked at the chat on his computer. Many of the people were clamoring for answers to their questions.

King picked up one of the printed pages and studied it. It was the second host site that he had found during his search. To him, it seemed to have the best features and previous users had left glowing reviews. He tried one more time to wake up Perth, and when that failed, he took matters into his own hands.

He used the credit card to register on the site and filled in all the necessary forms. Soon they emailed him all the information he needed. He went on the chat and informed everyone where to go and how to sign up. He told them the cost of the tournament per person, and the deadline for reserving a spot. Then he announced that the top three teams would win cash prizes. For all the bickering that had taken place earlier in the chat, everyone seemed happy with the arrangements and started leaving the chat.

King printed off all the information and placed it beside Perth. He tried once more to wake him up, with no success. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a bucket. He put it on the floor next to Perth, in case Perth felt like vomiting and didn’t have time to reach the bathroom. He then closed the laptop and returned it to its spot in the bedroom.

He could hear Ram’s steady breathing and knew he was deeply asleep. King envied him. He looked at the clock and saw it was much later than he thought. He would have loved to fall into bed, but he hated to go to sleep without showering.

He emptied his pockets and placed the contents on his dresser top. He gathered up his clothes and hurried to the bathroom for a fast shower. When he was finished, he left the bathroom light on, in case Perth woke up in the night, he would be able to see where to go.

King entered the bedroom and shut the door quietly behind him. He could hear Ram’s steady breathing and he knew he hadn’t disturbed him. He quietly made his way to the other side of the bed, pulled the covers back, and slid in between the sheets. He plugged his phone into the charger, turned off the little bedside lamp that Ram had left on for him, and quickly fell asleep.

Sometime later he was awakened by a noise coming from the living room. The dogs heard it too and began barking. King looked at Ram’s side of the bed and saw the covers were in a messy tangle and had been thrown all the way across the bed, almost reaching King’s side.

King sat up quickly and raked back his hair with his fingers. He heard Ram telling the dogs to be quiet. “Cool Boy!” King yelled with his heart pounding in fear.

“Everything’s fine,” Ram called to King. Within seconds he appeared in the room. “Perth woke up and asked me to take him home.”

King looked at the window and saw that it was still dark outside. “What? Now? Can’t he wait until morning? What time is it, anyway?”

“He is afraid Mother will worry,” Ram walked to the dresser and picked up the keys from where King had placed them earlier. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be right back.”

“Are you sure?” King asked. He felt some kind of weird energy coming from Ram that he didn’t understand. It felt a bit alarming.

The light from the living room filtered gently into the bedroom doorway. It lit up Ram’s face when he stepped away from the dresser. King could see Ram’s eyes then and he could see the reassurance in them. Ram gave a small nod. “I’m sure. Go back to sleep.”

King still felt a bit of uneasiness, but he pushed it aside and lay back down. Ram left the bedroom and shut the door behind him. King rolled back over on his side, facing the wall, and fell back to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

When the alarm on King’s phone rang, it woke him from a sound sleep. He kept his eyes closed as he reached over to the nightstand, grabbed it up, and shut it off. Only then did he open his eyes and see the early morning light spilling in from the window and lighting up the bedroom. He glanced over to Ram’s side of the bed and saw that the covers were still in the same disarray as they had been when Ram had gotten up to take Perth home.

King felt a surge of fear hit him. It had been in the middle of the night. Surely Ram would have come back to bed after dropping Perth off. Unless… maybe he hadn’t made it back to the condo.

He jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen, where he found Ram, sitting at his usual place at the table.

Ram was already dressed in his school uniform and was working on some homework. Next to him was a partially-filled cup of coffee, and the smell of fresh-brewed coffee was strong in the air. He looked up with surprise when King bolted into the room.

King raked his hair back from his face. “I didn’t realize you were here. Didn’t you come back to bed after you took Perth home?”

Ram shook his head. “I walked the dogs.”

King blinked in confusion. It had been in the middle of the night when Ram took Perth home. For Ram’s answer to make sense, it would have to mean that he walked the dogs for about four hours. It didn’t make any sense, but he wasn’t going to question Ram. If Ram wanted him to know what he had been doing, he would have told King.

“Oh. Okay. Well, I’m going to go get ready then,” King said.

Ram nodded and went back to doing his homework.

After King showered and dressed for the day, he went back in to the bedroom to make the bed, but he found that Ram had already made it. He dumped his dirty clothes into the hamper and then went back into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee.

Ram was again at the table doing homework. He looked at King when he walked into the kitchen and then he got up and pushed the start button on the microwave. King poured a cup of coffee and took a couple of sips when the microwave timer gave a sound indicating it was finished. Ram opened the door and pulled out a plate of food and set it in King’s place at the table.

“Breakfast,” he said.

“Oh…well, the coffee is enough…” King started to argue, but Ram gave him a look with a frown. King nodded and sat down at the table to eat.

When the smell of the food reached his nose, his stomach gave out a growl. He picked up his spoon and quickly began eating. He looked across the table at Ram.

“Where’s yours?” King asked.

“I ate earlier,” Ram answered. “I’m going to give the dogs a short walk while you’re eating.” His brow creased with worry.

“This is one of my short days, and one of your long ones. I’ll keep the car and pick you up for lunch,” King said. “I know you are worried about them being pinned up all day. If you walk them during your lunch period, they won’t have too much of a wait until you get out of class for the day.”

Ram’s brow cleared and he gave a small smile and nod. He hurriedly collected the dogs from the spare bedroom and left the condo. King finished eating and drank another cup of coffee. When he was finished, he rinsed off his dishes and put them in the dishwasher. He turned off the coffeepot and set about gathering his stuff for class.

Again, they drove to school in relative quiet. King could sense something was bothering Ram, but Ram kept his eyes averted from him for the most part. As King parked the car in the Engineering Department’s parking lot, he reminded Ram that he would pick him up at lunch. Ram gave a nod and hurried away to his class. King walked up the sidewalk to join his friends. Instead of their usual grumbling about having to come to school for just a few hours, they were instead happily chatting about the start of the tournament. Even though Boss and Mek were sitting the tournament out, they were enthusiastic for their friends.

“I missed the last part of the chat last night,” Bohn said, “And I’m not going to say why because I don’t want to hear all the ‘AWWs’, so would you mind explaining to me how this is going to work?”

King nodded, “Basically it works like a random number generator. We don’t know yet how many teams we will have, but once the time for enrollment ends, we’ll know how many teams there are. Each night, for two hours, teams will tackle the games with randomly selected other teams, which again—we won’t know how many teams we are playing against until this evening. Scores are hidden, so we won’t know who the top three teams are until the tournament is over.”

“And the prizes?” Bohn asked.

King nodded. “The entrance fees are paid directly to the host site, which will combine them. After doing the math, Perth and I decided that the top three places will receive a portion of the pot. Basically—first place is one-half of the fees collected, second place is one-third, and third place is one-sixth. And that is per team, not per person!”

Bohn grabbed his phone and used its calculator to do the math. “How many teams do you think there will be?”

King shrugged. “Last night we had over forty teams who said they were interested. But they hadn’t signed up or paid the entrance fee…so I am not sure all of them will join. And then again, there were some people in the chat who were going to tell people they knew about it, so we could end up with those forty teams, plus more. We won’t really know anything until the cut-off time this evening.”

Bohn scratched at his chin and looked at Tee. He grinned. “It’s going to be us who wins first place!”

Tee shrugged and then grinned back at Bohn, “I was going to be modest, but I can’t. We are going to beat everyone. No doubt in my mind.”

King laughed, “We don’t even know what games we will be given, and the two of you already think you will magically win at anything they could possibly give you!”

Bohn chuckled, “It’s not magic; it is skill. And Tee and I have it!”

“I didn’t see this marvelous skill on the mid-term!” King quipped.

“There are different kinds of intelligence, you know,” Tee laughed.

“Yeah, I know. I just haven’t seen any kinds from any of you four!” King retorted with a grin.

“Hey!” Boss and Mek said in unison, and then looked at each other and laughed.

“You two are acting like twins now! And speaking of twins,” Bohn said, leaning in closer and lowering his voice, “How is everything with Ram’s creepy twin brother?”

Tee frowned, “I don’t think he is now. I was with the three of them for dinner last night, and Perth seems to be a really cool guy. I am actually sorry I judged him so fast yesterday.”

Bohn frowned slightly, “And what about you?” he asked King.

King shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s okay, I guess.”

“So the fake tattoo and pretending to be Ram…” Bohn asked in a pondering tone.

Tee waved it away, “It’s nothing. Just a joke; a prank. It was just for fun!”

King met Boss’ eyes and was surprised to see how closely Boss was watching him. King averted his eyes by looking at his phone. “Hey! We need to get a move on or we will be late!”

Mek looked around the quad, “Are you sure? Everybody else from class is still here.”

“Up to you,” King announced, standing up from the bench. He pulled his checkered bag up securely on his shoulder and then raked back his hair with his fingers. “If you want to be late, it’s fine by me!” And he walked off toward the entrance of the building. He quickly heard four sets of feet hurrying to catch up with him.

During class, the professor was giving a lecture. It was taken straight from the reading they had been assigned. On the board was the homework assignment. King looked over at Tee and saw that his eyes were glazed over. Tee had the lucky talent of being able to sleep with his eyes open.

King pulled Tee’s textbook over into his place and looked up the assignment. He grabbed some paper from his bag. He looked around to see what his friends were doing. Omitting Tee, whom he had already verified was asleep. Bohn was sitting with his phone on his leg pretending to listen to the lecture and writing notes, but was actually texting with Duen. King peeked over his shoulder and saw that Mek and Boss had paper lying between them on the table. They were taking turns writing on it. King doubted if they were taking lecture notes. He suspected they were having a written conversation.

King set to work on the assignment. He focused all his attention on it and by the time class was over, he had completed it. He pushed the textbook back over in front of Tee and gave his shoulder a slight shake. “Wake up! Class is over.”

Running was forbidden on school grounds, so he walked as fast as he could to his car. He checked the time and saw that if he were very lucky and if all the stoplights were in his favor, he could make it.

As he drove, he called Ram’s favorite restaurant and placed the order. They had it ready when he arrived. He hurriedly returned to the car and took all the side streets back to the campus.

Ram was waiting on the curb with a worried expression when King pulled up. He got in the car and King handed him the bag. “Here, I picked up some lunch for you.”

Ram opened the bag and looked down in it. He looked at King.

“No, I’ll eat later. I figured if you ate while I drove, then you can have time to do both: eat and walk the dogs. No reason for you to go hungry.”

Ram looked around in puzzlement. He seemed confused about whether he should eat in the car.

“Eat!” King ordered. He picked up his sunglasses from the center console and put them on. The sun was directly overhead, but it was bouncing off the pavement and hitting King in the eyes. “I ordered it with extra ginger. I hope they got it correct,” he teased.

Ram opened up the container and examined it closely. He looked at King and gave him a smirk and shook his head. He began to eat.

He hadn’t quite finished when they reached the condo parking lot. “The dogs can wait a few minutes for you to finish eating,” King said when he saw Ram closing up the container. Ram gave a small nod and went back to eating his lunch.

After Ram finished, he gathered together the bag and containers and dropped them into the trash on his way up to the condo to get the dogs. King stayed in the car. He took off his sunglasses and dropped them back in the tray in the console. He opened his phone and scrolled through the tournament’s group chat. He saw there were a lot of people online, excitedly talking about it. Perth’s name was listed as being on, but King didn’t see comments from him.

Suddenly a private message box came up on is screen. It was from Perth.

**Perth** : _“Where have you been?!!! Have you seen how many teams have enrolled??? It’s crazy!”_

 **King** : _“I just got out of class and brought Ram back to the condo to walk his dogs. I haven’t been to the host page. How many?”_

 **Perth** : _“52 teams!!! And 4 more people without partners have signed up too! If they don’t have a partner by the time the tournament starts, the computer will pair them up. This is so cool! I had no idea it would catch on this well!!! Still a while to go before enrollment ends, too! We might even have more!”_

 **King** : _“You really had a great idea!”_

King clicked away from the chat and went to the host site. The count was now at sixty teams with five singles. If it stayed at an odd number, the host site would pair the lone player with a computer player. If that team ended with one of the three prize spots, the human player could only collect half the prize money. The other half would then be disbursed among the three winning teams according to their ratio. King sighed happily. He was glad all of that stuff was automatically figured out by the host site. He would hate for it to be on his shoulders. And he felt it would be. In just the short amount of time King had known Perth, he had developed the opinion that Perth was great at coming up with ideas, but not so great with implementing them. He reminded King of every time there was a group project at school. Inevitably there was at least one in the group who would shirk and King would have to pick up the slack. It was either that or let his grade drop—and King would never allow that to happen.

He clicked back on the chat and saw that Perth had left it. He chatted with a few of the people that he knew on it and then signed off. Shortly after that, Ram returned to the car and King drove him back to school.

King was just pulling away from the Engineering parking lot when he heard someone calling his name. He put on his brakes and suddenly the passenger door was pulled open. Perth hopped in the car and shut the door behind him. He was sweating and out of breath.

“Where are you headed?” he panted.

“Uh…I was thinking about getting some lunch,” King sputtered through his shock.

Perth nodded, “That’s great! I haven’t eaten yet either. There is a place I heard about at the mall. Do you mind?”

“I…uh, no, I don’t mind. Where did you come from?”

Perth laughed, “I was hanging out with some friends on campus when you and I were messaging. I figured you would be bringing Ram back to school, so I was headed here when I saw you. Lucky for me! Another minute and you would have been gone!” He reached up on the visor in front of King and grabbed Ram’s sunglasses. “I don’t think he will care if I borrow these.” Then with his fingers, he swept his bangs to the side.

A chill ran down King’s spine when he saw that. He wasn’t sure if Perth had done it on purpose, or if it was subconscious, but it seemed as if he were attempting to look more like Ram. “Wait!” King said as he reached for his sunglasses from the console. “Trade me. Mine have darker lens than Ram’s so his are better to use while driving” he lied.

“Really? You don’t mind if I wear yours?” Perth asked, his face a picture of shock.

King laughed, “No, I don’t mind.” As Perth traded Ram’s glasses with King’s, King noticed a couple of pamphlets in the seat with Perth. They had the college logo on them. “What’s with the pamphlets?”

Perth slid King’s sunglasses on, shaking his hair back down into its regular place, and then reached for the pamphlets. He picked them up and looked at them. “I am really enjoying being back here. Hanging around with my old friends,” he looked up and smiled at King, “and making new ones.” He looked back down at them, “Anyway, I thought I would check out the music and acting programs. See how they compare to my school’s. I don’t know…I might transfer here. I’m not sure though…this college is really strict compared to the one that I go to, and…I have already made a few commercials in the UK so…it just all depends on how things go.”

“‘How things go’? What ‘things’?”

Perth shifted a bit in his seat. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of a car horn behind them. “I think we are blocking traffic,” he laughed.

King had been stopped at a stop sign when Perth had jumped into his car. He carefully checked for oncoming cars and then turned. “You said this restaurant you heard about is in a mall, right? Is it in the Sun-Valley one?”

“Yeah, that’s the one! A friend of mine said the place just opened last month. He loved it and told me I had to try it.”

King squinted as the sunlight bounced off the pavement causing a glare to hit him in the eyes. He had Ram’s sunglasses still lying on his leg where he had rescued them from Perth. He thought about it for a second and then slid them on. He had worn them before and Ram hadn’t objected, so he felt that it would be okay with Ram if he wore them.

Sun-Valley Mall was very close to the campus, so they arrive there fairly quickly. Along the way, Perth told King stories he had heard from his friends that were scattered among some of the different majors at the college. King laughed almost the entire drive to the mall. He felt as if Engineering must be a boring major since none of the stuff Perth described ever happened their section of the campus. He also realized what a great storyteller Perth was. Selecting an acting major had been the right choice for him, in King’s opinion.

After King parked the car in the mall’s parking lot, he had a brief moment of a mental struggle with himself. He didn’t know what to do with Ram’s sunglasses. It was ridiculous, he knew. He could just place them back on the visor where Ram had them, but something felt wrong about that. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he decided to go with his instincts. He hung them from the neck of his shirt and got out of the car. Perth had already gotten out and was waiting for him. He was excited about trying the new restaurant and talked non-stop all the way through the mall.

When they entered the restaurant, King was surprised. He had expected it to be some franchise of a fast-food restaurant from the West, but it wasn’t. It seemed to be locally-owned and it served only foods from the East. It was very serene and the décor was tastefully minimalist. After they made their selections from the menu, King casually looked around to get a better feel of the place. He realized that with the small size of the tables and the placement of them, along with the ambient lighting, it seemed more like a place to bring a romantic partner than for a couple of friends to go to hang out and grab lunch. He didn’t want to mention it to Perth for fear of embarrassing him since he was who suggested the place.

“I am surprised that you picked a restaurant that served Eastern food. I assumed you preferred Western food. Was I mistaken?” King asked.

“No, you are right, I do. But you don’t. When I heard about this place, I had hoped you would like it,” Perth said with a smile. “And by-the-way, lunch is on me. Not sure if I mentioned that.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary. In fact, you bought dinner last night. It seems only fair for me to pay today,” King objected.

“Nonsense! I really wanted to try this place, but I hate eating alone. You saved me from a fate worse than death!”

King pretended to look around the room again, but he was thinking about what Perth had just said. To Perth, eating alone was horrible; to Ram, it came naturally. He thought about how odd it was that the two of them were so opposite. His little twin nephews had their own personalities, but they had many more similarities than differences. Even their differences in tastes were minor. The more King got to know Perth, the more he recognized how Perth and Ram were almost polar opposites. Almost as if, aside from physical appearance, they had nothing in common.

Their food was brought to the table and before Perth touched his, he took out his phone. “I want to grab a picture of this. I’m going to post it and tag the restaurant in it. If they get some business from it, maybe the next time we’ll get a free meal!”

King looked up quickly at hearing Perth just casually throwing out that statement about the next time they came there. It gave him a weird feeling in his chest and he found himself reaching up to reassure himself that Ram’s sunglasses were still hanging from his shirt. It felt almost like a reaction to danger. He frowned and shook that feeling away because it was ridiculous. Perth was Ram’s brother. He was in no danger from him. He took a bite and the food tasted amazing.

“Is it good?” Perth asked excitedly as he returned his phone to his pocket.

King couldn’t help but grin at the expression on Perth’s face. It was almost as if he had prepared the meal himself. King nodded, “Yes, it is excellent!”

Perth smiled happily and picked up his chopsticks. He was wearing one of Ram’s school uniforms and had turned up the cuffs of his shirtsleeves. When he raised his right hand to bring the food to his mouth, the sleeve slid up a bit on his arm. King could see the edge of a huge, ugly, black bruise on Perth’s lower forearm, slightly above his wrist.

“Wow! Where did you get that bruise? I’ve never seen one as black as that one!”

Perth pulled down the sleeve to cover it. He gave a small laugh, “Drunk and clumsy. What can I say? I hit it against a doorknob last night when Ram took me home.”

“Do you think you should see someone about it? It looks really bad!” King asked. He laid down his chopsticks and looked at Perth with concern.

Again Perth laughed. “No! It’s nothing. I’ve had worse. Don’t worry about it affecting my playing; my fingers work fine. We are going to outscore everyone.”

King shook his head as he pick up his chopsticks to resume eating. “I wasn’t worried about the game. That bruise looks like it must be really painful and I still think you should have it checked. You might have cracked a bone in your arm.”

Perth shrugged, “No, I promise, it’s fine. Thanks for your concern though.” He sprinkled a bit more ginger on his food before continuing. “You didn’t know that Ram went to the gym regularly, did you? I thought I saw surprise on your face last night when he announced he was going.”

King shook his head and continued to chew until he could manage to swallow before speaking. “I didn’t, but it does stand to reason that he would. I know that he has a professional rank as a boxer.”

“Oh, so you know about that, do you?” Perth gave a smirk. “I’m not really surprised. He probably likes to impress people by bragging about it.” He shuddered with disgust. “He probably loves to tell everybody how he knocked out everyone in our class and they had to put him with the professionals before he could seriously damage someone. I find the whole thing to be very sordid and uncivilized!”

“So, you took boxing, too?”

Perth laughed, “Indeed I did not! Like I said, ‘sordid and uncivilized’. I preferred to take classes in the finer things. I believe I started my piano lessons around that time. So, if he didn’t tell you, how did you find out about him being a professional boxer?”

“He and Bohn…uh…had a match once. For fun…like an exhibition kind of thing,” King tried to downplay the incident, wishing desperately that he hadn’t brought up Ram’s boxing. He wasn’t so flustered though that he missed Perth saying “our class” and then immediately denying he had ever taken boxing. King found that to be very curious.

“Hmmp,” Perth grunted. “Bohn? That’s Duen’s special friend, or whatever, right?”

King transferred the food in his mouth to one side so he could speak. “Bohn, as in my best friend.”

Perth nodded, “I hear you, loud and clear. Bohn is not up for discussion.” He took a drink from his juice. As he replaced the glass, he looked at King intently. “I would like to ask you a bit about you and my brother though. And it should go without saying, if it is too personal, just tell me and I will back off.”

King nodded his consent, but for some reason, he felt his stomach muscles tighten. Perth took a bite and chewed it while seeming lost in thought. Finally he gave a slight nod, almost as if he were agreeing with some thought he had had. “How did the two of you meet?”

“We have the same major and some mutual friends,” King answered, remembering what he had heard Ram telling Perth.

“Ram had a very similar answer. But…I wasn’t sure if it was true. So, I did a bit of digging around, just for fun, you understand. With a brother as silent as Ram, I learned young that if I wanted to know something, I would always have to find out on my own. Anyway, it feels like this story doesn’t quite fit with the picture evidence.”

“What do you mean?” King asked and noticed that he suddenly felt irritated by Perth. And that peculiar feeling of some kind of danger was again in his chest. It was beginning to spread down to his stomach also.

Perth grinned, “It’s really no big deal. I am probably reading everything wrong. I saw a picture of the two of you both tagged in it while you were working on that charity thing for the Engineering Department…but I would bet money on it that the two of you were not at all close. He is in the background with Phu and you are in the foreground with your friends. It looked to me like there was no connection between you. But then, and this is going by the date, you changed your profile picture shortly after. My brother’s arm is in that picture. A bit more digging and then at a much later date, you and he are tagged again in the Engineering project pictures. This time you are closer in the pictures…like I can almost tell something had changed between the two of you.”

King frowned. “It sounds to me that the pictures fit what I just said…”

“Not quite. You see…our beautiful, future Dr. Ting, loves to document everything in her life. Neither you nor your friends appear in her pictures until later than that.”

“I still don’t get what you are trying to say,” King could feel the irritation growing in his chest.

“I am saying that I don’t believe your story…at least the part about having ‘mutual friends’. That came later. After you and Ram were close. Not before, not during. And that is the part that intrigues me,” Perth stopped and took a drink of his juice before continuing. “Ram has had the same group of friends since primary school. He doesn’t make new friends because he is satisfied with the ones he has. But…he added you, and it was BEFORE his friends did. That is very interesting to me. It means you must be pretty special.” He smiled at King when he finished.

King felt some of his irritation ease. He hadn’t known where the conversation had been leading, and he hated feeling confused and put on-the-spot. Now he realized that Perth hadn’t been attacking him like he had felt.

“I am dying to know something else though. And here is where you might want to tell me to mind my own business.” Perth leaned forward, “What exactly is your relationship? Are you a couple?”

The irritation was back, and this time stronger than ever. King tried to keep his face and his voice as neutral as possible. “Ram and I are friends,” he said.

“Yeah, I thought so, and Ram said so…but…” Perth paused and gave a slight shake of his head as if he realized he shouldn’t say more.

“But? But what?” King asked, although it was against his better judgment. Something felt really ‘off’ about the way Perth was acting. King felt all the tiny hairs on his body rising up—as if a thunderstorm were coming.

“Look—I was still pretty drunk when I was in your bedroom and saw it, and I don’t remember if I promised Ram I wouldn’t say anything. If he found out I told…”

“I won’t tell him you told me. What is it?” King implored.

Perth sighed, “I stumbled into your room by accident. I was looking for the bathroom and you know I don’t know my way around your condo. Anyway, when I saw the two of you, at first I thought I had interrupted a ‘private moment’, if you know what I mean,” he gave a small laugh. “Ram saw me and tried to get up, but you…how did Ram put it? Hmm…I think…yes, he called you a ‘boa constrictor’ after he finally managed to get you off him and we were out of the room. You had been all over him and wouldn’t let him move. I remember correcting him and telling him you were more like an octopus because no sooner would he get an arm or a leg peeled off him, then you would throw the other one on him. It was really kind of funny!” He began to laugh harder at the memory.

King felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. He felt all the blood drain from his face and leaving behind a frozen mask. He remembered how the covers on Ram’s side of the bed had been so messed up and realized it had to have happened when he was trying to get King off him so he could get up. He tried to swallow but his mouth was dry so his throat just made a weird clicking sound. On the table was a tiny vine trailing slightly from its pot. He always felt better when he was around plants so he reached out his finger to touch it. He pulled his finger back when he realized the vine was made from plastic.

“I left the light on,” King mumbled.

“What? I didn’t hear what you said.”

King took a deep breath, although his chest felt as if it had been crushed by an elephant. “I said I left the bathroom light on for you.”

“Did you? Well, I must have been too drunk to notice. Hey, you aren’t upset, are you? You look a bit pale. You shouldn’t fret about it. Ram wasn’t upset. He said he is used to it by now.” Perth reached out and patted King’s hand. He pulled out his phone and looked at it. “If you are done, there is something you HAVE to see!”

King nodded to indicate that he was done. He couldn’t have forced down another bite if his life had depended on it. Perth paid for their lunch and then guided King out of the restaurant.

They walked together past shops and restaurants. King’s mind was on the scene that Perth had painted with his words. He was so deep within his own thoughts that he didn’t notice when Perth had stopped. He startled when he felt Perth grab him by the arm.

“Hey! Where are you going? This is the place!”

King looked around and saw that it was a movie theater. “Why are we stopping here?”

Perth waved his phone at King. “I reserved us seats when we were in the restaurant. We have to hurry! The movie is about to begin!”

“Oh…shouldn’t we wait for a time when Ram can join us?”

Perth laughed, “He wouldn’t like this movie! It is based on a video game.” He tugged at King’s arm, “Come on! If we miss the beginning, we’ll never catch up!”

King sighed and walked along with Perth. He wasn’t in the mood to watch a movie, but then again, he wasn’t in the mood to do anything. He had tentatively planned to go visit his mother before Perth had ambushed him. He hadn’t seen her since before the camping trip. But even if he could have slipped away from Perth now, he would have avoided her. She could read him and he didn’t want her to know that he was upset.

They had just settled into their seats, when Perth jumped up. “I am going to get us some snacks before it starts,” he said and took off before King could reply. They had just eaten a full meal and he wasn’t a bit hungry. Not to mention he had a huge knot in his stomach from what Perth had told him. King was upset and more than a little confused. He always went to sleep on his side of the bed and woke up on it. He had no idea that in the middle of the night he had been rolling over and wrapping himself around Ram. He cringed at the thought. He had given up drinking any kind of alcohol so that Ram would be safe, but apparently that wasn’t enough. He took a deep breath and then blew it out forcefully and raked back his hair with his fingers. He knew that he was going to have to sleep on the couch from now on; for Ram’s sake. It was going to be awkward. It felt like everything was awkward lately. As if the earth was still knocked off its axis and was spinning crazily.

Perth arrived back at their seats, loaded down with snacks. King reached over and removed some of the items that Perth had been carrying. Perth had bought them each a huge glass of cola plus a tub of popcorn for them to share. He also had numerous, oversized boxes of candy.

“I didn’t know what kind of candy you liked, so I bought a variety!” Perth said as he was finally able to sit down. He and King had both placed their drinks in the holder between them. King had placed the tub of popcorn in his lap so that Perth could get seated.

King reached up to feel the neckline of his shirt to make sure Ram’s glasses were still there and hadn’t fallen off in the darkness of the theater. It wouldn’t be helpful to save them from Perth, only to lose them himself. He smiled slightly when he felt that they were still securely there.

“P’King!” Perth whispered suddenly. King looked up and the flash from Perth’s cell phone camera lit up the area like a streak of lightening. A few people near them complained about it. Perth apologized to them and promised he wouldn’t do it again.

A preview of coming attractions was on the screen. King was watching them when Perth tapped his shoulder. He leaned closer to King and whispered, “Here, take whatever you want,” as he displayed the candy. King really didn’t want anything but then he noticed a roll of mints. He remembered watching videos of this kind of mint mixed with the same kind of cola he had. Combined they made a foamy volcano. He picked them.

He ate the candy and drank the soda to see what would happen. He felt the knot in his stomach shift around a bit, and then he had to quiet a couple of belches that escaped him. Perth laughed quietly and leaned over to whisper, “Feeling better now?”

To King’s surprise, he actually did feel better. He nodded to Perth and grabbed a handful of popcorn. He was eating it when the movie began.

By the time the ending credits rolled across the screen, King’s mood had improved dramatically. He had successfully pushed aside all his worries for a bit and gave his mind a mini-vacation. As they were walking out of the theater, King felt for Ram’s sunglasses on the neckline of his shirt. Finding them still there, he smiled.

“You’re smiling,” Perth said with a grin. “You liked it, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, it was a pretty good movie!” King pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. They still had about an hour before he needed to be back at the school to pick up Ram.

As they made their way to the mall’s exit doors, King looked out and saw that the sky had turned black and purple when they were inside. They stepped outside and the air felt heavy and wet. A big drop of rain hit King on the arm. He wrapped his hand around Ram’s sunglasses and turned to look at Perth. Perth was staring up at the black clouds overhead. “Perth?” King said. Perth looked at King. “Run!!!!” King shouted and took off running in the direction of the car.

They barely managed to make it inside the car and close the doors before the clouds opened. The rain came down in a torrent. The force was so great that it shook the little car.

“Holy shit,” Perth managed to whisper.

“It will die down soon,” King reassured him. He turned in his seat and located the umbrella that Ram had given him, laying on the floorboard of the backseat. He thought how it was really a great place for it, if you were in the car and going out into the rain, but not so great if you were out in the rain and trying to make it to the car. Luckily, they had managed to avoid the downpour. A few seconds later and they would have been drenched.

King sensed the force of the storm was starting to ease up so he started the car and turned on the windshield wipers. He had them at their fastest speed but they still couldn’t clean the windshield. He looked over at Perth and saw that he had a panicked expression.

“You forgot about sudden Thai rainstorms, didn’t you?” King asked.

Perth nodded, “I always hated them. Feels like I’m drowning. It rains all the time in the UK, but not like this.”

“It is dying down now. Soon it will just be a regular rain.”

Perth reached over to turn on the radio. “You don’t mind, do you? I think if I didn’t hear the rain beating on the car, it would help.”

King agreed and Perth selected King’s playlist to listen to. “You can tell a lot about a person by the songs they like,” Perth stated.

By the time the second song had played, King could see the parking lot a bit through the rain. After the third song, the rain had slowed down enough to see well enough to drive. He backed out of the parking spot and made his way through the parking lot. He heard Perth sigh in relief.

“We still have some time before Ram gets out of class, don’t we?” he asked.

King looked at the clock on the dashboard. “About a half hour or so. Why?”

“I was wondering—have you ever seen our house?”

King shook his head, no.

“Good! It is not too far from the college. I would love to show you around our neighborhood!”

At that moment, THE song came on. Instantly, King was thrown back in time. He and Ram, sitting side-by-side on the bus, sharing headphones and listening to that very song. He reached over and turned the radio off. There was no way he wanted to share it with Perth.

“Why did you turn it off? Problem with that song?” Perth asked. When King turned his head to answer, he saw Perth studying him intently.

“Oh..uh…no. I just thought…um, I wanted to ask you about the commercials you were in. I wanted to be able to hear you,” King was actually surprised at how fast he came up with that lie. And he could tell that Perth believed him by the pleased look on his face.

Perth began to talk. And talk. And talk. He only paused in his stories long enough to give King directions. King listened only enough to ask a question or two to keep Perth occupied. King made a mental note that from that time on, he would keep peppering Perth with questions about himself. Perth apparently preferred talking about himself even more than he liked being nosy about King.

As for King, even though he had turned off that song, he could still hear it in his mind. And he remembered the feel of Ram’s arm against his whenever the bus hit a bump or made a slight veering motion. He remembered studying Ram’s profile as he looked out of the bus’ window while the two of them sat together in silence. He looked over at Perth who was talking non-stop and laughing at his own stories. King looked away. Again he was amazed at how different Ram and his twin were.


	6. Chapter 6

As they reached Perth’s neighborhood, Perth paused in his narration of how great an actor he was, so he could point out different spots to King. Perth showed him the primary school that he and Ram had attended and their High School that Perth had left in the 10th grade to go to the UK for school. Ram had graduated from the school and Ruj was now attending there.

Perth directed King down a residential street and showed him their family home. King thought it was lovely and he admired how well the lawn and shrubs had been maintained. Perth pointed out Pin’s home and King felt a shudder of disgust at how close the two houses were. A few blocks later, driving in the direction of the college, it was Perth’s turn to shudder and turn away from the passing view. It caught King’s attention immediately, so he quickly scanned the area to see what could have caused it.

There was a small noodle shop and beside that was a novelty tee-shirt maker. King knew it wasn’t because of those two shops, and deduced it had to be because of the third business in the row. It was a good-sized, very modern, gym. On a banner was listed the kinds of programs they offered. It listed different kinds of training on various pieces of equipment and also numerous types of self-defense. The word “Boxing” drew King’s eye instantly. He felt as if Perth’s shudder was because this was Ram’s gym. Perth had started back on the topic of his commercial work, this time about the lighting that was involved. King glanced at Perth, who was speaking more rapidly than he had been, and then took a last look at the gym. King felt it was verification that he was right about that being Ram’s gym.

They arrived at the Engineering parking lot about ten minutes before Ram’s class was due to be over. The rain had slowed down to a light shower. Perth was in the middle of explaining about boom microphones, when Tee came up to the passenger window and tapped. He was wearing an oversized, hooded, rain jacket that partially obscured his face. King saw Perth startle and he laughed. “It’s just Tee,” he said and pushed the button to lower the window.

“You’re Perth not Ram, right?” Tee asked and upon hearing that he was indeed Perth, Tee smiled broadly. “Good! I was hoping to talk to you a bit more about the tournament. It starts in just a few hours! I am so excited!”

King leaned over the seat and retrieved the umbrella from the back floorboard. Perth looked around quickly. “What are you doing?”

King opened his car door and stuck the umbrella out of the opening. He opened the umbrella and stepped out of the car. “I am going to go get Ram,” he answered.

Perth laughed. “He’s a big boy. He can walk in the rain!”

King felt a blaze of anger flare in his chest. “Yes, he is, but this is his umbrella. I think he should be able to use it.” He shut the car door and walked off towards the building.

While standing in front of the building, listening to the rain hit on the umbrella, waiting for Ram’s class to be dismissed, King had a talk with himself. No matter what, Perth was Ram’s brother and King realized he should speak to him with respect. He had snapped at Perth, and he didn’t intend to apologize for it. He did vow that he would be more respectful in the future though. He sighed at the thought. Being around Perth was exhausting.

Students began to exit the building. When King saw Ram, he hurried over to him. Ram looked surprised to see him there.

“I…uh, it’s raining,” King pointed out the obvious. Ram looked up at the sky and then back at King. King laughed, “Okay…but the umbrella was in the car! I didn’t want you to get soaked on your way there.”

Ram stepped under the umbrella and took it from King’s hand. His gaze swept across King obviously noting that King still had on his school uniform. “I haven’t been back to the condo to change.” King explained. He noticed Ram’s gaze settle on the neckline of King’s shirt. King reached up to feel that area and his hand made instant contact with Ram’s sunglasses. He felt his face get warm. “Perth’s in the car.”

Ram gave a small lift with his chin that passed for a nod. He took hold of King’s forearm and proceeded to move down the path, pulling King along with him.

They hadn’t gotten far when King said, “Cool Boy, I was thinking…I think instead of eating out, maybe we should just go home and have something delivered. That way you won’t have to wait to walk the dogs.”

The hand holding King’s wrist gave him a slight squeeze, which King interpreted as a thank you. He felt as if Ram had been worried about them.

When they reached the car, Tee was gone. Outside the driver’s side door, King handed Ram the keys. “You drive, I have a bit of a headache,” he said. He took the umbrella and closed it. Then he climbed into the backseat. He slid across so that his view was of Ram, not of Perth. He plugged his headphones in and selected his playlist on his phone. He scrolled through it until he came to the song that had been running through his mind since he had turned off the radio earlier.

He settled back in the seat and watched Ram’s profile as he backed out of the parking spot. The window beside him was dotted with rain. The image fit perfectly with the song, and King’s memory of listening to it with Ram on the bus. King closed his eyes to travel back to that time in his mind. He desperately wished they could go back then in reality. There were no gaps and spaces between them then like there was now.

The next thing he knew, an unfamiliar hand was on his arm, gently shaking him. He opened his eyes and saw Perth leaning over his seat, grinning at him. King pulled the headphones out of his ears, and Perth said, “Wake up! My goodness, the two of you really are old, aren’t you?” and then slid back down to sit back in his seat.

“It’s fatigue from studying. You wouldn’t understand,” Ram said as he put the car into park. King looked at Ram and saw through the windshield that the rain had stopped and the sun had reappeared low on the horizon. King knew from experience that when the sun was at that angle, it caused a horrible glare when driving. He also knew that the glare would be much worse with the rain on the road reflecting it. He reached up to his neckline and found that he still had Ram’s sunglasses hanging there. He pulled them off and leaned up to hand them to Ram. “I’m sorry, I forgot I had them.” Ram took the glasses with a nod and put them back up on the sun visor where he always kept them. From King’s angle, he could see Perth’s head turn ever so slightly to look at the sunglasses. King felt a chill go through him. For whatever reason, Perth really did want Ram’s sunglasses. King felt certain his intuition had been correct earlier. He wondered if Perth wanted them to use as a prop, like his fake tattoos, so he could look more like Ram. King felt another chill crawl up his spine. It didn’t seem like a normal thing someone would do. However, he wasn’t a twin so he didn’t know how that was. His own little nephews sometimes dressed alike, but that was their mother’s choice not theirs. They preferred to dress as individuals. Perth seemed to be of a different sort than them. As for Ram, it seemed as if he went out of his way NOT to look like Perth.

As King got out of the car, he reached over and grabbed the umbrella to take inside with him. Rain was in the forecast for the rest of the day and into the night.

As soon as they entered the condo, Ram went to the spare bedroom to get the dogs for their walk. Perth and King went to the kitchen. King kept take-out menus in a drawer so he pulled them out and began to sort them on the counter. Perth got a glass from the cabinet and poured himself a drink.

“Supplies are running a bit low,” Perth commented. “I’ll need to pick up a few more bottles.” He wandered into the living room and sat down. He pulled out his phone. He laughed at something someone had said on the group chat. He read it aloud for King to hear.

King looked up to give Perth his attention, and a slight chill ran down his spine when he looked at Perth. He was lounging on the couch with a drink in his hand. He looked very comfortable being in the condo. Almost too comfortable. King didn’t understand his feeling of unease, but he made a note of it and filed it away in the back of his mind.

“Everyone seems super excited about the tournament starting soon! I know that I am. Are you?” Perth asked.

King carried the organized stack of menus with him into the living room. He laid them on the coffee table as he sat down. “Yeah, I am. It’s been a while since I’ve played. And I am curious about what game they are going to give us.”

“I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but I think that was a genius idea of yours to let the host pick instead of us. It adds to the excitement!” Perth grinned at King.

“Well, we did discuss it, you must not remember. We discussed that if we picked it, it would look like we had an edge over the other players—like we picked the one we were best at. We decided to be as neutral in the decision as all the others. Do you remember now?” King searched Perth’s face for any kind of sign that he remembered but couldn’t find any.

“Oh…sure, yeah. Now I remember! I guess we are both geniuses then!” Perth smiled happily. King didn’t believe he remembered that conversation at all.

King excused himself and went to get his gaming equipment. He brought it into the living room and went about getting it all set up to play. That way, as soon as it was time, he and Perth could start. He didn’t want to miss a second of it.

While he was working on it, Perth read aloud the comments on the chat. Eventually King got swept up in the fun of it and pulled his phone out of his pocket and logged onto the chat, too. He would work on the equipment for a bit, and then pick up his phone to make a comment or two, and then go back to working on the equipment. He and Perth worked as a team in the chat and playfully smack-talked the others that were in there. They would receive it right back. The two of them even begin to plan what they would say and they riffed off of each other very well. They were roaring with laughter as the chat progressed.

“If we work this well together in the game, there is no way we won’t win,” Perth said with a laugh, his eyes sparkling with glee.

King nodded, “We’ve got this!”

King finished with the equipment set up and announced that he wanted to change out of his school uniform. He told Perth that he would be back in a few minutes. Perth nodded never taking his eyes from the chat, as he made his way into the kitchen to refill his glass.

King went into the bedroom and shut the door. He stripped down to his underwear and tossed his uniform into the clothes hamper to be washed. He rummaged around in his drawers, looking for his favorite sweatpants. Once he located them, he shut the drawer and his eye fell on Ram’s backpack on the floor. Again he felt the discomfort of that. He didn’t want Ram to have to keep his clothes in a backpack. He could very easily give him a drawer or even two—but he didn’t want Ram to feel like King was pushing him to stay. He sighed as he pulled on his sweatpants. The truth was, he wanted Ram to stay, but he wanted Ram to want to stay, not stay because King wanted him to. Before the camping trip, King would have been able to discuss this with Ram, but after that night in the tent…he sighed again and shook the thoughts away. He walked over to the closet and began to search for a shirt.

Suddenly the door to the bedroom opened and Perth hurried in. “The deadline for signing up just passed. You will never guess how many people signed up for the tournament!” Perth was grinning down at his phone.

King snatched a shirt off the hanger and quickly pulled it on. Even though Perth hadn’t looked up from his phone, King still felt a touch of offense at his presence in the bedroom. The door had been closed. King believed that most people wouldn’t just open a closed door and walk in. It was customary to knock first, in King’s opinion. Unbidden, the memory of Perth telling him that he had stumbled into the bedroom the night before came back to him. King knew for a fact that he had left the bathroom light on for Perth to find and he knew that he had closed the bedroom door behind him when he had gone to bed. He peered closely at Perth as he thought about it. He realized that Perth didn’t respect boundaries like closed bedroom doors, and mentally made a note to always change in the bathroom, from that time forward, if Perth was around. The bathroom door had a lock.

King smoothed his shirt down over the waistband of his pants, raked his hair back with his fingers, and asked, “How many?”

Perth turned his phone toward King and King moved over a bit to see. Perth shifted his weight and leaned against the dresser with his hip. This way they could both see the screen. “144 people!” Perth exclaimed excitedly. “That’s 28,800 baht total! I think next time we need to double the price and keep half of it for ourselves!”

King looked up in shock. He hadn’t agreed to do another tournament with Perth. Perth was just assuming that he would.

“Excuse me,” Ram said, from the doorway. “Have you ordered dinner yet?”

King startled at the sound of Ram’s voice, and quickly moved away from Perth’s phone. “No, I got out the menus. They are in the living room. We were waiting for you to help decide.” King realized the closet door was still open so he made his way over to close it.

Back in the living room it didn’t take long to decide their dinner selections. King made a note of everyone’s order and then called it in. Ram volunteered to be the one to pick it up. He also volunteered to pay for it, although King argued the point.

When Ram left to go pick up the food, King felt more of that uneasiness that he couldn’t put his finger on. He looked over at Perth, sprawled out on the couch, playing on his phone and was suddenly hit with the feeling that somehow it was like he and Ram had adopted Perth. As if he were a child, while King and Ram were the adults.

As he was having this revelation, Perth looked up at him and grinned. “Everyone is going crazy in the chat!”

King sighed and then smiled. He nodded as he realized that was why. He and Ram had tended to the adult matters of getting dinner and paying for it, while Perth played around on his phone. If this was occasional, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but King felt as if this was how Perth probably always was. King picked up his phone and signed onto the chat while he waited for Ram to return.

After Ram returned with the food and they had eaten, it was almost time for the start of the tournament. Ram disappeared into the bedroom while King turned on his game player. As King returned to the couch, carrying both the controllers in his hands, Ram came back out of the bedroom. He had his bag with him, indicating that he was going to the gym. He handed King the keys to the car.

King handed Perth one of the controllers and then returned the keys to Ram. “No, we are due for more rain. I want you to take the car.”

Ram looked at Perth and then back at King. King nodded in understanding, “The game will probably last a couple of hours. Perth won’t need a ride home until after that.”

Ram nodded and turned to leave. “And take the umbrella!” King called. Ram looked back and gave him a slight smile and a nod.

Perth and King received emails containing their passwords almost at the same time, which was a relief to King. He was glad that the host provider he had chosen was working so well.

They each signed into the game and were happy to find that their avatars for the game had already been created. They were heavily muscular and heavily armed. It was obvious that it would be some kind of warlike game they would be playing. The faces of the avatars were cartoon renderings of the faces from their social media profile pictures. Which meant that King’s avatar was wearing Ram’s sunglasses. He couldn’t help but smile at that.

Perth laughed loudly. “I look like a psychopath!”

King turned his attention away from the study of his own avatar and looked at Perth’s. Perth’s social media profile was a picture of him with a huge smile. In cartoon form, placed upon a soldier with massive biceps and an even larger gun. King’s laughter joined Perth’s.

“You really do!” King finally managed to get out.

“Yeah, it would be better suited for Ram than to me!”

King’s laughter cut off immediately. “What do you mean by that?”

Perth continued to laugh, “Oh come on! You know! He loves to beat people up!”

“The boxing?” King asked with a frown. “That’s a sport.”

Perth’s laughter stopped and he sneered. “Sure, beating people into unconsciousness is a ‘sport’.” He scoffed and shook his head, “Whatever you say.”

“No, it’s not what I say, it is a fact. Boxing is classified as a sport. There are rules and all parties are trained athletes.”

Perth rolled his eyes, “We will just have to agree to disagree then. I see it as uncouth and uncivilized. A couple of sweaty brutes hitting each other is not a sport in my mind.”

“Ram is NONE of those things!” King said hotly and laid down his game controller.

Perth looked at King closely for a moment. “No, you’re right, he’s not. I am just not a fan of boxing. I spoke without thinking.”

King studied Perth’s face and his anger calmed down a bit when he saw that Perth looked contrite. Perth looked back at the game on the screen. “Look! The other players have signed on! The game is about to begin!” He said with excitement. He reached over and retrieved King’s controller from the coffee table and handed it to him. “Here, let’s go win this thing!”

The introduction screen appeared. It gave the instructions for the game and then the backstory. It was set in a post-apocalyptic world that was populated by zombies and humans who had mutated because of the atomic war that had preceded the beginning of the game. The zombies did not harm the diseased humans; they only wanted to eat healthy ones. And the mutants hated the healthy humans and had devised numerous traps to catch them to feed to the zombies. The players’ mission was to make it through various levels to ultimately reach the safe lands, where the healthy humans lived.

Perth let out a yell of happiness, which startled King. Perth laughed. “I love horror games the best! Do you?”

King shrugged, “Yeah, I like them.”

“Good! I have this friend back in the UK. His name is Stewart. The guy hates horror games. Won’t touch them. He watches us when we play though. I always tease him and call him a voyeur!” Perth grinned and leaned closer, as if to share a secret, “You won’t believe this, but Stewart…he plays Pokemon!” And then Perth roared with laughter.

King was perplexed by Perth’s reaction. Perplexed and a bit disgusted. “I like Pokemon too,” he said, “Also, I like the Mario games.”

Perth looked a bit taken aback. “You’re kidding me! For real? I thought most people outgrew them by the time they were like 10. I had no idea that you were that immature. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. As long as you like horror games too, it’s fine. I bet you and Stewart would get along great.”

King bristled at Perth’s opinion of both he and the unknown Stewart. But he conceded in his mind that he and Stewart probably would get along great, and wished Stewart and Perth could somehow magically change places. He thought he would much prefer hanging out with Stewart.

The game began and King was soon caught up in it. He and Perth did work very well together, each seeming to know what the other was going to do, as if they had fought side-by-side in many zombie/mutant human wars several times before. King felt his earlier irritation melt away.

At one point, Ram came back and put the keys on the table next to King. King acknowledged him by mumbling “Thanks”, but kept his eyes on the game. Another time, his hair fell into his eyes, and when he raked it back, he caught a glimpse of Ram sitting at the kitchen table doing his homework. Sometime later, he heard the tags on the dog collars rattling. He looked up to see Ram leading them to the door.

“Take the umbrella!” he called to Ram.

Perth elbowed him, “Hush! Concentrate!” he hissed.

Ram called back, “Got it!”

King looked at Perth and frowned. He didn’t know how Perth had gotten so close to him. King tried to move over a bit, but found he was flush against the arm of the couch. He was about to ask Perth to scoot over a bit, when a small horde of zombies broke through the brush in the game, and it took all his concentration to help fight them off.

He was vaguely aware of Ram walking past them on his way to bed. It was a while before the game finally ended. They had both survived the first level of the game and they were excited! It would amount to a two thousand point bonus since both survived. As the player board appeared on the screen, they saw that many of the players hadn’t been as lucky. In more than a few instances, both players in the team had died in the game. They would still be able to finish the tournament, but with points deducted from their overall score—which wouldn’t be known until after the tournament ended.

Perth leaned back and stretched, “I would say we are off to a great start! We had a lot of kills and neither of us was killed. I bet our scores are pretty high.”

King agreed and then excused himself to go to the bathroom. On his way, he looked down the hall towards the bedroom and saw that the door was shut. No light shown at the bottom where the door had a tiny gap from the floor. Ram was in bed, probably already asleep. King wasn’t sure what time it was, but now that he wasn’t involved in the game, it felt late.

When he returned to the living room, he checked his phone and saw that they had played for over three and a half hours. He had expected it to be two hours or less. He sighed at the lateness of the hour.

Perth was looking at his phone, laughing at some of the comments in the chat room. He read a few to King. He had to agree with them. It was a rough game. Everyone was commenting that they couldn’t wait until the next round, tomorrow evening.

“Perth, if you don’t mind, it is getting late and I have a long day tomorrow. I’d like to drive you home now.”

“Oh sure!” Perth hopped up from the couch. “Let me just take a moment to make a stop in your bathroom and I will be ready to go!”

Finally they made their way to the car. As soon as they were on the road, Perth requested King to stop by a market that was on the way. He explained that his mother was a health nut who didn’t allow snacks. He wanted to buy some and sneak them in for him and Ruj. But, he wanted snack foods that came from the West, and that was only in a certain market. King sighed but agreed to take him there.

After Perth directed him to take a few turns, King realized that they were headed away from Perth’s house, not toward it. “I thought you said the market was on the way home,” King challenged.

“No, you must have misunderstood! I asked since we were out could we stop at the market,” Perth replied.

King frowned in concentration as he thought back to their earlier conversation. “No, I feel certain that you said it was on the way.”

“No, I really didn’t. Sorry if you misunderstood. Probably because your mind is still on the game; which is understandable. I have been thinking about it, too. I think the game made a mistake. They should have given us clown makeup and big, flappy shoes instead of weapons. It is a well-known fact that zombies never eat clowns.”

“What? That’s ridiculous! Of course they would eat clowns!” King was astounded by what Perth had said.

“No, really! They never do.”

“Why wouldn’t they eat clowns?!!!”

“Because clowns taste funny!” Perth leaned back in his seat, gave King a huge grin, and wiggled his eyebrows.

King roared with laughter. “I thought you were being serious!” he exclaimed once his laughter had slowed.

Perth’s eyes were sparkling with merriment and he began to talk about the condition of some of the zombies in the game, speculating by their appearance, what their lives had been immediately before turning into zombies, but with a funny twist. The two of them laughed the rest of the way to the store.

When they arrived, King stated that he would stay in the car and wait for Perth, but Perth wouldn’t hear of it. He insisted King join him. Just as King had surrendered and was getting ready to open the car door, he noticed Perth’s eyes shift to look at the sunglasses on the visor, and then quickly darted away. King felt a creepy feeling in his stomach and a chill ran down his back. He felt certain that Perth was going to steal them the minute King’s back was turned.

Even though it was late at night, King grabbed the sunglasses and hooked them into the collar of his shirt. He knew that he would look stupid carrying sunglasses around at night, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t about to let Perth get them.

However, Perth didn’t seem to notice. He grabbed a hand basket when he entered the store and quickly began grabbing items to put in it. He seemed to have a story for every item, and they were all funny stories. King concluded that Perth had a very strong social life back in the UK, teeming with friends and ex-lovers. For some reason, perhaps it was how Perth told the story originally, King had gotten the impression that the girlfriend that made the fake tattoos and had been the intended victim of the whiskey bottle incident, had been a major love of Perth’s. Listening to him speaking about his exes in the store, King changed his mind. It sounded like she was barely a blip in the radar. In fact, according to the stories, it sounded like Perth never really cared that much for anybody.

Suddenly Perth stopped dead in his tracks. King had to quickly swerve to avoid crashing into him.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” King asked in confusion.

“Nothing’s wrong! Everything is perfect now! Don’t you smell it?” Perth asked with a huge smile.

King started to shake his head, but then stopped as the smell reached his nose. It smelled like grilling beef. “Yeah, I do now.”

Perth took off at a brisk pace, quickly turning his head from side-to-side, and then he stopped suddenly again. In the back part of the store was a tiny, Western franchised, hamburger stand. It had a menu board with a counter underneath it, and four dining tables in front of it.

“I think I have died and gone to heaven!” Perth exclaimed as he rushed away from King.

King jogged over to him, his hand on the sunglasses to keep them from bouncing off his shirt. “Surely you can’t be hungry!” he exclaimed.

Perth laughed, “We ate dinner hours ago! And those little bits of pork and chicken with noodles don’t fill me up. Order whatever you want; it’s on me!”

“Oh, no thanks! I’m still full. But don’t let me stop you,” King declined.

Perth’s eyes raked King from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. He shook his head. “You know, being thin is good, but skinny…,” he paused and made a little click with his tongue. “Is it an eating disorder? Is that why you wear such baggy clothes? To cover it up, I mean?” His eyes were cold and he had a trace of a sneer on his lips.

“I…uh…no. I don’t have an eating disorder. I’m just not hungry. I probably just need less food than you do,” King explained.

“Oh yeah! That’s right! I keep forgetting that you are older than me. Yeah, your metabolism has probably already slowed down. Okay, well, we’ll get you something small. How about a sundae from the kid’s menu?” Perth suggested.

“Yeah, sure,” King mumble. “Sounds great.” Perth walked up to the counter to give his order. King looked down at his clothes. The tee-shirt he was wearing was his favorite one. It was from a concert that he, Tee, Bohn, Mek, and Boss had gone to during their first year. They had gotten so drunk afterward that they had to link arms to walk down the street from the bar to their hotel. Tee walked next to the buildings and ran his hand along the walls to keep the group steady. The next morning, they were all hung over. Five hung-over guys and one bathroom, it was quite an adventure. There was a torrential rain outside so they lay around the room, watching old black and white horror movies on TV and making fun of the special effects, complaining about how awful they felt. Later that day, they took the train back home and everybody but King fell asleep. He stayed awake to make sure they didn’t miss their stop. He had grown up with two older sisters, but from that moment on, he had felt as if he also had four brothers. He sighed and then looked down at his pants. He had to admit that they were more for comfort than for looks, but he hadn’t intended to be out in public when he put them on.

Perth turned away from the counter, smiling triumphantly, carrying a tray loaded down with food. He led the way to a table, while King slunk behind him, feeling like a bony, old grandpa, dressed in baggy rags.

Perth unloaded the tray and placed a minuscule cup of ice cream at the place across from him. King sat down, automatically putting his hand on Ram’s sunglasses to keep them from banging against the table. He realized that there was one positive thing about the evening. He didn’t have to worry about feeling like he looked odd with sunglasses on his shirt this late at night. Apparently he already looked odd.

He looked down at the infant ice cream in front of him and realized it was covered with big chunks of strawberries floating in a strawberry sauce. It was not the most appetizing thing to look at after spending hours playing a game where he had to shoot zombies in the head.

He heard the click of Perth’s camera on his cell phone and looked up. Perth grinned as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “I will post it and tag them in it. Might get a coupon or something from them as a ‘thank you’.”

King nodded. Perth had said something similar that afternoon at lunch. King hadn’t taken the time to look at Perth’s FaceBook page, but King would have bet this was something that he did all the time.

Perth talked the entire time he ate. King moved the strawberries away to the side of the tiny container and took a few bites of the ice cream. He occasionally answered with an “Um-hmm” when Perth paused in his monologue. Eventually Perth finished his food and then took the basket of snacks up to the checkout stand. He continued talking while he paid and they returned to the car.

As King drove them back to Perth’s home, Perth continued to talk. At one point King forced himself to focus on what he was saying and realized Perth was comparing the two different kinds of face powder that he preferred they use on him when he was doing commercials. One covered better but the other didn’t cake up in his pores. He was pondering why they couldn’t make one that did both. King tuned him back out.

Finally the arrived at Perth’s house and he grabbed his bags of snacks and left the car. King waited until Perth was inside before driving away. He relaxed back in his seat and sighed. Normally when he was in the car alone, he listened to music. He had no desire to listen to anything though. He even shut off the air conditioner and rolled down the window to feel a bit closer to nature.

He was less than a quarter of a mile away from the condo when the skies opened and rain poured out. There was no visibility so King pulled over to wait for the rain to ease up. He hadn’t gotten the window up in time, so one whole side of him was drenched.

His phone rang immediately after he got the window up. He groaned when he saw it was Perth. He had had enough of Perth for one day. He sighed angrily and then answered his phone.

“Did you make it home before the rain?” Perth asked. King could hear that he was chewing something crunchy.

“No. I am pulled over on the side of the road to wait it out. I’m sure it will pass soon.”

“Okay, well I’ll just stay on the phone with you while you wait. I don’t like the idea of you out there, all alone, in this mess,” Perth proclaimed.

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m used to it! I will be okay,” King reassured him, hoping to get the message across the he really didn’t want to talk.

“I know. Today when we were trapped in the car, you didn’t panic at all. But still…you’re too valuable to me, uh…I mean, you’re my partner in the tournament, you know. Um…I really just want to make sure you are safe and able to finish it.”

“Perth? It’s rain, not fire or acid,” King laughed. “I’m fine. In fact, I can see a street light or something now, so it will soon ease up.”

“Did I tell you that I have been studying Japanese?” Perth asked and King was a bit confused at the sudden topic change.

“No, you didn’t mention it.”

“I’m quite fluent. I am thinking about trying out for some commercials in the Japanese market. They are always looking for new faces.”

“Oh…well, that definitely sounds like something you should do then,” King said, still puzzled.

Perth began to talk all about the commercial business in Japan. Again King resorted to an occasional “Mm-hmm” to make it sound like he was listening. It was about ten minutes before the rain slackened off enough to see.

“Hey Perth,” King interrupted Perth in the middle of something he was saying about trade shows. “The rain has died down enough to see. I need to focus on the road, so I am going to hang up now.”

“Wait! I need to tell you how great it is to talk to you. You get me. It is pretty amazing that we have this kind of connection so soon,” he gave a light, embarrassed laugh. “Anyway, be safe, okay? And send me a message when you get home so I know you made it.”

King hung up the phone and then carefully eased the car back onto the road. He shook his head. It seemed obvious that Perth was lonely or something, but he should be spending his time talking to his family or his old friends, not King. Again he thought about how exhausting Perth was.

When he finally pulled into his parking space, the rain had increased again. When he unbuckled his seat belt, he realized he still had Ram’s sunglasses hanging from his shirt. He put them back up on the visor where Ram kept them. He turned in his seat to reach for the umbrella and then, to his dismay, he realized it wasn’t there. He had forgotten to bring it.

He stared out at the rain for a few moments and then remembered what he had told Perth—it was rain, not fire or acid. He could do it. He jumped out of the car and took off running to the building.

As King was riding the elevator to his floor, he remembered when his parents bought the condo for his sisters to share while they were in college. After they graduated and no longer needed the condo, his parents had rented it out for a few years until it was time for King to enter college. He usually was grateful that they spent the extra money to buy it in a modern building that had air conditioning. On this particular night, he would have been quite happy if they hadn’t. He felt like he was freezing on his way down the hall to his front door. His hands trembled as he tried to get the door unlocked.

When he stepped inside, the dogs began barking. He hadn’t counted on that. “Shh! It’s okay! I live here,” he whispered. He was afraid that they would wake up Ram.

“HUSH!” King heard Ram called firmly. The barking stopped immediately.

King peered around the wall to look at Ram, who was standing in the doorway of the hall that led to the bedroom. “I’m sorry that I woke you. I forgot about the dogs.”

Ram turned around and hurried away. Seconds later he was racing across the living room, carrying towels. King thanked him and used one to rub through his hair. Ram wrapped the other one across King’s shoulders and rubbed his back. King shivered violently. “I forgot the umbrella,” King said with chattering teeth.

Ram nodded. “Take a hot shower.”

“I will. Go back to sleep,” King said.

He started to walk towards the bedroom to get his clothes when his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and sighed when he saw Perth’s name.

“You didn’t answer my messages! Are you home?” Perth started in on him before he could even say ‘hello’.

“Yes, I just now got in. Thanks! Um…well, goodnight!” King answered and hung up before Perth could say anything more.

He looked at his missed messages and saw that Perth had sent three of them. He shook his head as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. Ram had been behind him on the walk to the bedroom, but when he answered his phone, Ram had walked around him and was already lying down. King grabbed the clothes he was going to sleep in and hurried to the shower.

After he was finished, he finally felt warm. He toweled himself off and reached for the clothes he had brought in with him. His hand stopped before he reached them. He walked over to the mirror and examined his body.

He looked at himself from every angle. He shook his head. He wasn’t skinny. He didn’t know why Perth had said that, and he didn’t understand how King had allowed it to affect him. King had stronger self-esteem than that.

He pulled on his clothes and again looked at himself in the mirror. They were loose and baggy, just like how he liked them. He wasn’t trying to cover up or hide behind them; he was just more comfortable than when he wore closer fitting clothes.

He crept quietly into the bedroom. He put his dirty clothes in the hamper and put his keys and wallet on the dresser. He peeked at Ram and saw that he had fallen back to sleep in his usual position. His breathing wasn’t as deep and slow as his normal sleep pattern—King assumed it was because he had been awakened and it was taking him some time to get back into a deep sleep. He moved around to his side of the bed and unplugged his phone charger from the wall, grabbed up his pillow, and shut off the bedside lamp before creeping back out of the room.

He stopped by the hall closet and got some extra bedding from the shelf and then went into the living room. He dumped everything onto the couch and then plugged the charger into the outlet down by the baseboard. He plugged his phone in, set the alarm on it, and then made up the couch.

He shut off the light and then lay down. He tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable spot. He sighed in tiredness and exasperation. Finally he found a position that was a bit comfortable and then closed his eyes. Sleeping on the couch really sucked, but at least he had the satisfaction of knowing that Ram would sleep safe and well since he wouldn’t be attacked all night by King, the ‘boa constrictor’.


	7. Chapter 7

King woke to the sound of his phone alarm ringing. He kept his eyes closed as he reached for it to turn it off. His hand couldn’t locate the phone and nothing felt familiar. He opened his eyes and realized he was on the couch, not in his bed. The phone was on the coffee table in front of him instead of its usual place on the nightstand next to him. He grabbed it and turned off the ringer.

Ram came into the room from the hallway that led to the outside door. He carried a bag in his hands. He held it up to show King and mumbled, “Breakfast”, and continued into the kitchen.

King sat up and flipped his hair back out of his eyes. He could smell the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee. Ram had been dressed in his school uniform, so King knew that he had been up for a while.

He got up from the couch with a sigh. He felt as if he hadn’t gotten much sleep at all and it was Wednesday, which meant it was one of his long days. He sighed again as he folded up the covers and placed them and his pillow into the storage closet. He stopped by the bedroom to grab his school uniform and then headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

When he was ready, he hurried into the kitchen. Ram was seated at the table in his usual spot, eating his breakfast from a takeout container. There was a matching container on the table in King’s place. King poured a cup of coffee and carried it over to the table. He took a drink of the coffee and then opened the container. It was omelet and rice. His stomach growled in response to the smell. He thought again how funny it was that in the past he rarely ate breakfast but since Ram was staying there, he was always starving in the mornings. For a split second he drew back. All of the horrible insults that Perth had thrown at him the night before about his weight came roaring back into his mind. He looked across the table at Ram and wondered if he thought the same things; if that was why he was always insistent that King eat breakfast. The moment passed and he picked up his spoon. He knew that Ram didn’t think like that. It was another obvious difference between Ram and Perth.

Ram finished eating and got up from the table. King watched him throw the container in the trash and then pour another cup of coffee. Ram stood in front of the sink, drinking it, while looking out the window.

“Do you think we should leave?” Ram asked without turning around.

King looked at the clock on the microwave and saw they still had a lot of time left before they needed to leave for school. He looked down at his breakfast that he had only taken a few bites from. “It’s still pretty early. Is there something you need to do before class?”

Ram shook his head, “No, me and the dogs.”

King frowned in confusion. He had assumed that Ram had already walked them. “What do you mean?”

Ram shrugged. He was quiet for a few moments; then he sighed. “Are we in your way? Do you want us to leave?”

King leapt to his feet, “I want you to stay!” he blurted out. Ram turned away from the sink and gave King a startled look. King slowly sat back down as he said, “I mean—uh, I mean I want you to stay as long as you need to. Until you feel ready to face your family. You know? Like what I told you the first night you stayed here.”

Ram studied King’s face for a moment and then nodded. He turned back to the sink and dumped out his cup, rinsed it, and put it in the dishwasher. And then he left the kitchen.

King picked up his spoon from where he had dropped it in the container when he leapt up. His hand was shaking. His heart was racing and he tried to slow down his breathing. He felt the wave of panic slowly ease away from him. He had no idea why he had reacted so strongly to the idea that Ram would leave. King was aware that Ram was only in the condo temporarily. There would come a time when Ram would feel ready to resume his regular life. “Not now,” King whispered to himself, “Not for a while.”

King forced a few more bites down, but he had lost his appetite. He dumped the container into the trash and took a couple of headache pills. He could feel tightness in the back of his head and his temples were beginning to throb. His legs still felt a bit weak from the panic that Ram’s question had given him.

King went to the bedroom to collect his wallet and keys from the dresser. He noticed that Ram had made the bed. King’s side of the bed looked empty without his pillow. He sighed and grabbed up his checkered bag and went back to the living room.

He walked over and looked out of the window. He switched his focus from looking out of the window to looking at the glass at a slight angle. He could see Ram’s reflection in it. King studied him. Ram was seated on the couch, studying his phone intently. There was a slight crease between his eyes and his shoulders looked tense. King knew the signs of Ram in distress and he was showing all of them. King pondered a bit on what could make him look that way. It finally occurred to him that Ram was probably on Pin’s FaceBook page again. He seemed to be drawn to it frequently. King knew it was to see if there were any signs of Ram’s father on it.

Ram raised his head and looked at the window. Their gazes met on the glass. “Are you ready to leave now?”

King shrugged, “Sure.” He turned around and pulled the keys from his pocket. “It’s my long day, so you can drive and then keep the car.”

Ram nodded and then searched King’s face with a frown. “You look pale.”

King shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just a touch of a headache. It will be fine.”

Ram nodded again as he stood up. “Okay.” He led the way out of the condo and to the car. King followed quietly behind him.

Once they arrived at the college, Ram went one way and King went the other without a word. King had a weird feeling of déjà vu. This behavior was becoming their new normal and King wasn’t fond of it.

As he approached their table on the quad, he could see his friends sitting there. They were all huddled together, looking at something. As King drew closer, he could see it was one of their phones.

Mek looked up and saw King approaching. He nudged Boss with his elbow, and he and Boss quickly moved away. Tee and Bohn swiftly parted and Tee slid his phone into his shirt pocket. When King got to the table, they were all chatting about the weather.

King frowned. He had been a part of this kind of distraction himself in the past. “What’s going on? I know you guys weren’t discussing the weather!”

They all shifted around and each peeked at the others. Finally Bohn grinned and shrugged. “You don’t follow Perth on FaceBook, do you?” he asked.

King shook his head, “No, why?”

Bohn turned to Tee and gestured towards King with his head. Tee sighed and pulled out his phone. He turned it on and clicked the app. When he found what he was looking for, he handed his phone to King. King noticed the guys all exchanging looks, a couple of them biting back grins.

King saw it was Perth’s page. As he scrolled down, he saw picture after picture of himself. Perth had taken them the day before, and in most of them, King hadn’t been aware that Perth was taking pictures. He knew about the picture at lunch—but he had thought Perth was taking a picture of his plate. The plate was in the picture, but the main focus of the picture was King. In the caption, Perth had written “I have never had something that looks this good sat down in front of me before…” he then tagged the menu item and the restaurant. King frowned at it and then looked at another picture. It was the picture that Perth had taken inside the theater. Again the focus of the picture was on King. The caption was “It is scary how perfect this is…” with the tag of the name of the movie and the theater. A picture of King running to the car when the storm was coming, “We were taken by surprise by a force of nature!”; King inside the car, looking through the windshield at the storm, “Waiting to seize the right moment”; King across from him at the hamburger stand, “Heaven on earth…” with the name of the restaurant tagged. King had seen enough. He handed the phone back to Tee in disgust.

“Did you see the comments?” Bohn asked with a smirk.

“No, and I don’t care what they said!” King said angrily as he sat down.

Tee laughed, “Too bad! Basically they think you have a ‘type’.”

King frowned, “A what?”

“A type,” Mek answered. “Because…well, they’re identical, right? Everyone was shipping you with Ram for a while. Now they think it is Perth. There is even a poll on the ‘Hot Guys of Our University’ page. The poll question is something like, ‘Who will King pick?’ Perth is crushing it in the votes.”

King rubbed his temples with his fingers. He had his eyes shut in defense against the pain that was slamming inside his head. He sighed and asked, “Is there a ‘neither’ option.”

Bohn laughed at the question. “Yes, and even a ‘both’ option!”

All of King’s friends laughed at that. King cringed. “This is insane. If you go back and look at those pictures you can see that I’m not even looking at the camera in them! I didn’t know he took them of me!”

“But, still…I mean, you were there with him in all those pictures,” Boss argued. “It looks like you’re dating.”

“Well, we’re not!” King insisted.

“I am dying to know what Kumfah thinks of all of this! She must be over-the-moon—you and two handsome twins vying for your affection! It’s a bl fan’s dream!” Tee laughed.

“My sister doesn’t know about any of this nonsense. Her husband took her and the boys on a trip to the seashore. Their rule is no electronics on vacation.” King explained. “And you’re right, she would be. But she would be wrong…just like she always is. She sees couples everywhere. You can’t even say ‘hello’ to a guy around her before she imagines the two of you picking out curtains together!” He turned his attention to Boss and Mek, “And speaking of that, did you ever decide the debate on curtains versus blinds?”

“Curtains!” Boss said and then tossed a grin in Mek’s direction. “He decided to let me win!”

“‘Happy wife; happy life’, or so I have heard,” Mek added and then ran his knuckles over Boss’ head. Boss giggled as he dodged away.

King stood and picked up his checkered bag. He hung it on his shoulder and then raked back his hair. “I have a horrible headache and the sun is killing me. I’m going to go inside now. But listen, you four are my best friends so I want to make this clear to you. I don’t really care what the rest of the school is speculating—there is nothing going on romantically in my life. Ram and I are friends, and Perth is just my friend’s brother. That’s all there is to it.” He looked around at them and saw by their eyes that none of the guys believed him. He shook his head with a sigh and walked away.

The morning classes passed slowly. King’s headache didn’t get any better; in fact it seemed to be worse by the time lunchtime came around. He felt a bit queasy with it so he skipped going to lunch with the guys and headed to the nurse’s office. The nurse on duty gave him some headache medicine and an ice pack for his head. She suggested he take the rest of the day off and go home. He debated the idea and then decided not to. Ram had the car and King didn’t want to bother him by asking Ram to come back to the school to get him. Plus, he didn’t know what Ram did on his time off. He could have a date, or something. The thought made his stomach roll. Unbidden, the memory of Ram at the sink that morning, asking King if he wanted Ram and the dogs to leave, sprang into his mind. The idea made his head pound worse. He gave the ice pack back to the nurse and told her that he felt better. He left the nurse’s office and headed towards the vending machines. He bought some snacks and forced himself to eat them. He slowly became aware that people were watching him. Not everyone, of course, but enough of them that it became uncomfortable. He tossed the empty wrappers into the trash and hurried back to Engineering.

By the time he reached the table in the Engineering quad, his friends were already there.

“Hey! Where did you go?” Mek asked when King approached.

“I went to the nurse’s office. I needed some headache medicine.”

“You still have that headache from this morning? That’s not like you! I have pain relievers; I would have given you some,” Mek scolded him.

“Okay, I’ll remember for next time.”

“Who has a headache?” came from behind King. He turned to find Perth walking up to join them. He was dressed in regular, street clothes, with a badge pinned to his shirt that said “Visitor”. He was accompanied by a female student. She looked familiar to King, but he couldn’t place her.

“King does,” Tee answered.

“I hope he gets over it before our game tonight!” Perth said as he walked around the table to stand facing the group.

“Oh! So you are a ‘visitor’ today!” Tee laughed. “You have been hanging around the campus for days!”

Perth grinned, “True, but today is different. King and I have been discussing the idea of me transferring from my school in the UK to here. I turned in my application today and they gave me this lovely lady from the music department as a guide. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I didn’t need a guide!” He laughed, “Forgive my lack of manners. Karawek,” he said to the girl, “Meet my friends!” He indicated with his hand, each one of them in turn, “This is P’Tee, P’Bohn, P’Boss, and P’Mek! And this one is my very special friend, P’King. Everyone, this is Karawek. She is a second-year student in the music department, and for today, my guide.”

The guys greeted her and then she turned to King. “You didn’t need to introduce me to P’King. We have met before.” She gave King a wide grin.

He shook his head slightly. “Your face looks familiar, but I’m sorry, I don’t remember where we met.”

“Probably because you were too busy to notice me,” her grin became even wider. “I’m Beam’s best friend. Oh! I can see on your face that you remember me now.”

King felt everyone’s eyes on him, so he just gave her a slight nod.

Perth sat down at the table, directly across from King. “Beam?” he asked with an edge in his voice. “Who’s Beam?” he inclined his head to indicate that the question was directed to Karawek, but his eyes never left King’s face.

Karawek sat down beside Perth. “She’s great! I’ll introduce you to her! You’ll love her. Everyone does! Her and King were quite the thing last summer. She still says he is her favorite of all her guys! She is going to die when she finds out I saw him today!” She turned her attention to King. “What happened between the two of you? Why did you break up?”

“Nothing happened,” King said. “We were friends for a while and then parted ways. It was no big deal.” King noticed that students from the surrounding tables were up and moving toward the door to the school. “Looks like the lunch break is over.”

They gathered their stuff together and got up, Perth and Karawek said their goodbyes and headed back down the path. Right before they passed from view, Perth turned to look back. He glared at King.

Beside him, Tee began to chuckle. King quickly looked at him. “What’s so funny?”

“He’s jealous!” Tee answered quietly.

“You’re crazy!” King exclaimed and then hurried toward the building.

When they got into the classroom and took their seats, King became aware that the guys were looking at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Spill it!” Bohn ordered. “Tell us about Beam.”

King sighed and shook his head. “I met her at a bar last summer. We hooked up a few times. End of story.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Bohn asked.

King scoffed, “Because it wasn’t anything. If it was, you know I would have brought her around to meet everyone.”

The guys all exchanged looks and nodded. They allowed the subject to drop.

King’s headache worsened during the afternoon classes. Right before the last class, he asked Mek for a couple of his pain relievers. The medicine didn’t seem to help at all and when they finally were dismissed for the day, King winced when he walked outside and the sun hit his eyes. Bohn hurried off to meet Duen and Boss and Mek jogged off together, leaving Tee and King to walk to the parking lot together.

When they reached the rock, King looked down to the parking lot and saw Ram leaning on the car, talking to Perth and Karawek. He stopped and sighed. Tee stopped too and looked down at the car. “He’s only trying to make you jealous.” He said with a laugh. “I guess he wants to get even for Beam.”

King just shook his head. “Like I said earlier, you’re crazy. But think whatever you want.”

Tee nodded, “I will!” Then he peeked sideways at King. “We told you about the poll but…well, we didn’t tell you about the bets.”

King snapped his head to look at Tee. “Bets? Bets about what?”

Tee shrugged and shifted from foot to foot. “Like the poll,” he finally admitted.

“You mean to tell me that people are betting on…” King started.

“On which one of the twins you will pick. Yeah,” Tee nodded. “At first I was leaning toward Ram, but then I remembered how you acted to him on poker night when we were camping. And then, Perth posted all those pictures…”

“How?” King asked as he quickly looked down at Ram in the parking lot. “What did I do? Some parts of that night are a bit fuzzy in my mind.”

Tee leaned in closer and said quietly, “He was trying to help you to the tent. You shoved him in the chest and demanded that he leave you alone. To tell you the truth, I felt sorry for him when I saw the look on his face. He seemed confused and embarrassed. You passed out then and he took you back to your tent. I debated with myself if I should stop him. But I figured you were just talking out of your head—my family’s whiskey can do that—so I didn’t interfere. Was that the right choice? He didn’t do anything, did he?”

“NO!!!” King answered hotly. “Ram is a good guy. Nobody ever has to worry about him! It was like you said, just the whiskey.”

Tee nodded, “Anyway, when I saw all the pictures that Perth put up of you, I knew then. If anything were going to happen between you and Ram, it already would have. Since it didn’t, I put my money all on Perth. And I am glad I did! All this swirling jealousy in the air today and finding out that the two of you have discussed his transferring here…I am sure I made the right choice.”

King raked back his hair as he thought about everything he had put Ram through that night. He really needed to apologize for it. He scolded himself for not doing it yet, but every time he thought about it, he wanted to shrivel up and die of shame. Tee was rambling on about Perth. King saw Perth and Karawek walking away from the car. He followed them with his eyes until they were out of sight. He let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey,” Tee said softly. “Don’t freak out about it! He is only doing that to get under your skin, which means he really likes you.”

King frowned and turned to look at Tee. “What are you talking about?”

Tee grinned, “Okay, I get it. You want to act like it isn’t getting to you that Perth just left with that girl.”

“I think I have probably said this to you a dozen times today, but I am going to say it again—you’re crazy! Anyway, good luck with the game tonight. Try not to get eaten by the zombies!” King waved at him and then hurried down the path to meet Ram.

Ram smiled slightly when he saw King approaching. The smile quickly slid off his face to be replaced by a look of concern. “You’re pale,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

King gave a small shrug. “I’ve got a headache,” he said as he dropped down into the passenger seat of the car. He leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes.

Ram walked around to the driver’s side and got in. “Perth will be by the condo later.”

King nodded. He relaxed a bit at the news. He wasn’t up to listening to Perth’s continuous chattering. At least when they were playing the game, Perth was quiet.

They only rode for a short time before Ram parked the car. King opened his eyes and saw they were in the parking lot of Ram’s favorite place to eat. King didn’t feel like eating, but he was glad that Ram was able to have dinner there. He got out of the car and followed Ram inside.

They sat down at their usual table, in their usual seats. They were soon given menus and King watched Ram reading his. King had to smile at it. Ram probably had it memorized ages ago—but he still read it. There was a family at the table nearest them. The mother had said something to the father and the children were quietly laughing about it behind their hands. Ram passed the order pad to King. He intended to just order a juice but he thought maybe he could eat something light. He wrote down his order and handed it to the young woman who was their food server. By habit, King turned to look back at the serving area to see if the young woman who had been interested in Ram was working. She was. King bit back a grin at the idea that she probably always traded tables with another server when Ram came in so that she could avoid him. It also amused him that Ram didn’t even seem to notice.

King could hear the sizzling of the grill and could smell the aromas of meat and herbs. A soft, cooling breeze blew through the open front of the restaurant. The patrons talked quietly to their tablemates. King could feel the stress leaving him. He looked across the table and found Ram was watching him.

King smiled, “It’s nice here.”

Ram nodded. “Normal.”

King startled. That was exactly what it was and it apparently was just what King needed. It was another indication of how well Ram could read him.

Soon their food was brought to the table. Ram looked at King’s order and frowned.

“I don’t really feel much like eating. Thought I would try to eat a little something though,” King explained. When he saw that his words hadn’t eased Ram’s worry lines, he picked up some ginger with his chopsticks and leaned over as if he were about to sprinkle some on Ram’s food. Ram’s expression turned playfully menacing.

“No answer means ‘yes’”, King reminded him.

“NO!” Ram answered roughly and then smiled. King smiled too as he sprinkled the ginger onto his own food. It was a silly joke that probably no one else would have understood, but it was theirs. A little inside joke between the two of them. That made it special.

King’s first few bites didn’t go down easily. In fact, they felt like they might even come back up, but soon they settled down. His stomach gave a loud growl and King realized that he was hungrier than he thought. Towards the middle of the meal, Ram excused himself from the table to go to the restroom. Before he arrived back to the table, their server brought over more food.

“I’m sorry; I think you’ve made a mistake. We didn’t order this,” He said, and quickly wondered if the server was there to get Ram’s LINE number, like the other server had during their first visit there.

“The other guy did,” she answered. She sat the food down and also two more bottles of juice before walking away.

King looked at the food with a confused frown. Ram arrived back at the table. He reached over and took one of the bottles of juice before sitting down. Once he got seated, he picked up the ginger pot and some unused chopsticks and sprinkled ginger over the top of the food dishes. He looked up at King and then gestured with his head to the food, “You needed more.”

King took a bit of the food, to be polite, but very shortly after, he realized he had eaten it all. He felt Ram looking at him and he looked up to meet his eyes. He laughed when he saw the question in Ram’s eyes, “No! I don’t need any more! I’m full.”

Ram nodded and then leaned back in his seat. “Your color looks better,” he said as he raised his juice to drink the last bit in the bottle.

King realized that his headache was gone. Not just better, but totally gone. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, my headache is gone. I guess I just needed to eat.” Even as he said the words, he knew it wasn’t totally the truth. The food helped, of course, but King felt it was more the releasing of stress that actually took the headache away. Being with Ram, in a place that was totally devoid of Perth’s presence, was stress free. He felt free from danger, which was an odd thought, but he couldn’t deny that was how it felt.

King sighed, “Perth will be at the condo soon for the second round of the tournament.”

Ram nodded. “How many are there?”

“A total of four rounds. Friday night is the last night of it.”

Ram gave a slight nod, but King knew that Ram would be glad it was going to be over soon. Truthfully, King was glad, too. He enjoyed the games, but if he were honest with himself, he would admit that he was tired of Perth. If they weren’t in this tournament, Perth’s visits to the condo would probably have been few and far between. As it was, he was going to be a daily visitor. But…he was Ram’s brother, so King would always welcome him there. He imagined that Ram might resent the tournament a bit. He wasn’t getting much time to be with Perth since the games forced Perth and King to be together instead.

When they arrived back at the condo, Perth hadn’t arrived yet. King felt a wave of relief and hurried in to take a shower. He felt sticky and his brain felt foggy since his headache had left. After his shower, he slipped into a big t-shirt and baggy sweatpants. As he was preparing to leave the bathroom, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He looked at his reflection and remembered the horrible things Perth had said about his appearance. He shrugged it off. He was comfortable and clean. That was all that mattered to him.

Even before he reached the living room, he could hear the low mumble of Ram’s voice followed by the faster, higher-pitched voice of Perth.

“Oh! There you are!” Perth said as he caught sight of King, “I thought we were going to have to send in a lifeguard to save you. Do you always take such long showers?”

King was slightly taken aback by the greeting. “I don’t know; I don’t time myself,” he said. He looked at the clock, saw that it was near the starting time, and set about connecting his gaming hardware.

Ram excused himself to go walk the dogs. Perth went into the kitchen and poured himself a drink. “I would offer you one but I am sure the answer would be ‘no’.” He strolled back into the living room and leaned against the wall, watching King. “I met Beam today. She’s quite pretty. She seemed excited to hear that you and I are friends.”

King shrugged and picked up the game controllers and handed one to Perth. He walked over to the couch and took his usual seat.

Perth gave a small laugh as he sat down. “So…you aren’t going to ask me anything about her? Like, for instance, if she is still single?”

“Nope.”

“That’s interesting. She was full of questions about you.”

“Perth? You have to sign in.”

Perth looked at the screen. “Okay, I get it. You don’t want to talk about her.” He entered his password and the game began. King didn’t realize his muscles had tensed up until he felt them relaxing. He knew that Perth would be too involved in the game to talk.

A bit later, King heard Ram return with the dogs. And then sometime in the second hour of the game, King glanced into the kitchen and saw Ram sitting at the table with his textbook open. Right before the game ended for the night, Ram came into the living room, sat down, and watched them play.

Neither one of them had been injured or killed during the game so they collected the extra bonus points at the end.

“That was amazing!” Perth said as he laid down his controller. “Between us we racked up a lot of kills during this round. I bet we are at the top of the scores.”

“You mean you don’t know the scores?” Ram asked with a frown.

King shook his head. “It’s a blind tournament. We won’t know until after it is over. The top three teams will win a cash prize. If the players could compare their scores with everyone else, people might drop out—which wouldn’t have an effect on the prize money, but it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Ram gave a nod with a shrug, which King interpreted to mean that it was a smart idea. Then Ram looked at Perth, “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

Perth’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean? I thought P’King would be taking me home.”

“No,” Ram said decisively. “P’King hasn’t felt well today. He needs to rest. I’ll take you home.”

“Hasn’t felt well?” Perth looked at Ram with a scowl, “You mean because he had a little headache? He’s fine now.”

Ram stood up, “And with the extra rest he gets, he will be even better. Let’s go.”

King felt weirdly uncomfortable with the two brothers talking about him like he wasn’t even there. He started to object, to agree to take Perth home, but at the last second he shut his mouth. He realized that if he said anything, it could be interpreted as siding with Perth against Ram.

Perth turned to King, “Aren’t you going to say anything?!!” he asked angrily.

King darted a glance at Ram and then looked back at Perth. “uh…yeah. Goodnight.”

Perth rolled his eyes and shook his head. And then he stormed off towards the door. Ram followed close behind him. Although Ram never looked in King’s direction, King could see a trace of a smile from Ram’s profile.

King took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the door closed. He really was tired and was thrilled that he didn’t have to drive Perth home and listen to his chattering. King went to the closet and got out his pillow and covers. He made up his bed on the couch and set the alarm on his phone before lying down. He was beginning to doze when he heard the ding sound indicating he had received a message. He picked it up and saw it was from Perth. He didn’t bother to read it. Perth was probably still on the way home and was complaining that it was Ram and not King driving him home. King didn’t feel compelled to read it. He disabled his notification alerts and rolled onto his side. He fell asleep almost immediately.

It was sometime later when he heard the dogs let out a bark and Ram’s voice hissing at them to be quiet. They settled down as soon as they heard his voice. King was slipping back down into sleep when Ram passed through the living room and shut off the light. King felt Ram pausing in the darkened living room for a moment before slowly going to the bedroom.

King shifted his shoulder a bit to try to find a more comfortable spot. He slid his arm under his pillow and curled it around it to nestle his head into. He wished that he could just get up and go crawl into his own bed and sleep next to Ram. He squelched that thought as soon as it came to mind. Keeping Ram feeling safe was far more important than his own comfort. The lumps and bumps of the couch might keep King from sleeping comfortably, but he didn’t mind. He knew that Ram would sleep well and that’s all that mattered.


	8. Chapter 8

By going to bed at a decent time the night before, King had no problem waking up the next morning. He got ready quickly, ate breakfast with Ram, and then had some time to check the messages on his phone before they needed to leave for school.

He saw that Perth had sent him six messages during the night. King didn’t bother to open them. He could see a part of the text from the latest one which suggested they spend the afternoon together. King shook his head and then scrolled past Perth’s name and read messages from some of his friends.

As he scrolled, he saw a name listed that he hadn’t seen for a while. He darted a glance at Ram and saw that he was engrossed in something on his phone, and then King clicked open the message from Beam. The message had arrived in the middle of the night. Beam said that she had heard he had been talking about her to Karawek and learned that he had a short day on Thursdays. (King frowned at that. There was no way that Karawek would know that, unless Perth told her.) She didn’t have any classes that day and suggested they meet up. She named the bar where they had first met and said she would be waiting there for him at 2:00.

Then he saw a message from a new contact. He read the message and then sent an answer. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He ran his hand through his hair. He thought about the message for a second or two and then he exited out of the app and turned off his phone. Ram was looking at him. King nodded, “Yeah, we should be leaving.”

In the car, as King pulled into a parking space in the Engineering Department lot, he reminded Ram that he would pick him up at lunchtime so Ram could walk the dogs on his break. Ram nodded as he exited the car.

They walked in silence up the path. When they reached the fork, King walked on forward and Ram took the path to the left. Just as he was almost out of earshot, Ram said, “Bye.”

King blinked in surprise and then hurriedly called “Bye!” to Ram’s retreating back. He felt the grin spread across his face. He didn’t know why it had happened and he didn’t care. The weird vibe between them seemed to be disappearing. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of him and he took a deep breath and relaxed.

As he reached the quad, he found Boss alone at their table. He was sitting on the table with his feet on the bench. He was craning his head to look down the path. When he saw King, he smiled and waved.

King hurried his steps, “Where is everybody?” he asked when he was close enough.

“Bohn and Tee are ditching, said they wanted a four-day weekend. Mek had to go to an activity meeting to turn in some donations he had collected. You look happy today! Much better than yesterday! What’s up?”

“What activity? And why aren’t you involved in it?” King asked while sitting down on the bench, sidestepping the question.

Boss shrugged and looked away, “It was something he joined a while back. I was too busy at the time, so I didn’t.”

“That’s odd. The two of you have always joined things together. What were you busy doing?”

“Have you heard about the bets?” Boss asked, this time he was the one to sidestep a question.

“Bets?” King asked. “Do you mean the one based on that stupid poll? The one that is about me, Ram, and his brother?”

Boss nodded, “Yeah, that one.”

King nodded, “Tee told me yesterday. He even told me who he had money on and why. So what about you? Who did you bet on?”

“Mek and I decided not to bet on it,” Boss said. With his finger, he traced the lines of grain in the wood of the tabletop, avoiding King’s eyes.

“Oh! That’s right! You are watching every Baht right now,” King nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, we are, but that’s not why.” Boss quickly turned and looked down the path. He turned his head and searched the quad before giving King his attention. “You were happy for us that night at camp, when I used the bullhorn to tell everyone that Mek and I were a couple.”

“Of course I was! Everybody was!” King assured him with a smile.

“No…but, well…I saw your face out of the corner of my eye. You seemed especially happy for us. More than the others.”

King shrugged, “I always kind of knew the two of you would be together for real one day.”

Boss’ head was lowered as he watched his finger trace the grain. He peeked at King through his fringe, “Yeah, you have that ‘King thing’. Nothing gets past you for long.” He took a deep breath and let it out, “If I tell you something…would you promise not to tell Mek or the others?”

“Boss! You know I won’t!”

Boss nodded and then began, “That day at camp had been kind of horrible for us. That’s why I did what I did. My…uh…my girlfriend came there looking for me.”

“Wait! What? You had a girlfriend?” King asked in surprise.

Boss laughed, “I know, it is a shock that I could get one…”

“No! I’m just surprised you didn’t tell any of us!”

“Mek knew. I didn’t tell him at first, but he saw us together. He helped me a lot. I didn’t know the first thing about dating and things like that.”

King studied Boss’ face as he grew quiet. It was apparent he was reliving everything in his mind. King glanced around quickly to make sure Mek wasn’t approaching, and then he prodded Boss to continue, “And?”

Boss smiled, “He was really great. We even had a ‘practice date’, if you can believe it. Anyway, the whole time I was…” Boss shook his head, “I don’t know, it felt like it was a real date—but with Mek and me, nothing to do with Fo…uh, my girlfriend. Anyway, she was building a career, and doing very well with it, and it took a lot of her time. With Mek’s help, I was trying to get involved a bit in that area, but then her manager basically called me garbage and kicked me out.”

King sucked in air between his teeth, “Ouch! That sucks!”

Boss nodded, “It did. I got drunk and went over to Mek’s place. I was angry and upset and…” he laughed, “No, I won’t go into details, but let’s just say, one drunken kiss later, I knew that Mek had always been the only one for me. And the only one who ever would be.”

At the words “drunken kiss”, King felt as if someone had kicked him in the chest and knocked all of the air from his lungs. He quickly tried to cover up his reaction and pretend to be listening to Boss, but it took a few moments for him to be able to focus on his words again.

“…and I couldn’t just leave her upset, all alone in the woods, so I went with her to her car and made sure she was okay. By the time I got back to camp, it was already dark. Mek was so hurt by what he thought had happened that he wouldn’t listen to me, so that’s why I did it.”

King nodded, “It was epic! You were so brave to do it, especially after all of that!”

Boss grinned and ducked his head down. “I would do anything to be with him. And we are happy together. And I feel like we always will be, too.”

King studied him with a smile. “I think you will be. The two of you were made for each other. We all have always called the two of you ‘MekandBoss’ as if you were a unit. I think we have always known on some level.”

Boss smiled while still looking down. “That’s why we won’t bet on the poll. We want you to be happy. Really happy; like we are. If we voted on one of them, we would be focused on him winning; we want our focus to be on your being happy.”

King looked away and nodded. He actually felt a bit choked up, but he would never admit that to Boss. He would never hear the end of it if he did. His brow creased into a frown of concentration and he looked quickly back at Boss. “You didn’t put money on it, but you do have a pick, don’t you?”

Boss looked around as he got off the table and stepped down on the ground. “It looks like some of Mek’s activity members are coming back. He’ll be here soon. I think we should change the subject before he gets here. He won’t believe the ‘weather’ conversation any more than you did.”

King pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes to study Boss’ swiftly shifting ones. King nodded, “Spill it! You have a pick and I can see it all over your face. Tee told me his and his reasons. I want to hear yours.”

Boss shook his head, “I can’t. I don’t want to influence your thinking or anything like that.”

King laughed, “You won’t! I already told all of you that I am not in a romantic relationship, so that means the correct answer is ‘neither’. I just want to know for curiosity’s sake. Who is it that you picked and why?”

After looking around the area quickly, Boss leaned in closer and answered in a quiet voice, “Ram. I know everyone else thinks it is Perth because of all of those pictures, and I admit it looks like it could be him,” he shrugged, “But I don’t think it is.”

Oddly, King found his heart to be beating more quickly. His mouth was dry so he licked his lips. “Okay, so…your reasons for picking Ram?”

Boss held up his fingers and began to count on them, “Ram is staying in your condo…”

“Well, yeah, that’s because…” King tried to explain, but Boss cut him off.

“With his dogs! Dogs, plural. I’ve known you for years and I know that you will walk blocks out of your way to avoid a dog, and now you have them inside your home! And he drives your car. You’ve never let anyone else drive your car. Plus, there are things I have seen…”

King tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. “Such as?”

Boss took a deep breath, “The night when we all were at your parents’ house for dinner…”

“When you blew up the kitchen?”

Boss peeked at King from under his fringe and chuckled, “Yeah, that night. As soon as Ram came out to the patio, you hopped up out of your seat and then you led him away, to somewhere to be alone. And the time at the park when me and Mek saw the two of you on the bench, and he was looking in your mouth or something…the two of you were sitting very close. And then the time on the bus to the camp…”

King frowned, “Because we sat together? We had to. There weren’t any other seats open.”

“No, not that. Mek and I were in the seats in front of you, and I looked back once and saw the two of you sharing one set of headphones.”

King laughed. “His battery died on his phone, and I owed him because one time that happened to me and he shared his. See, I can explain away everything you have listed.”

“Okay,” Boss said with a nod. “I believe you. So explain to me why you haven’t changed your profile picture. The one with Ram’s arm in it. If you were interested in Perth or anyone else, I think the first thing you would do is change that picture.”

“It’s a cool picture,” King said, but even to his own ears, it sounded like a weak answer.

“There is one more thing…” Boss said, tapping his chin with the tip of his finger. “I just realized it.”

“What?”

“Earlier, when we were talking about the poll, you said ‘Ram and his brother’, not ‘Ram and Perth’,” He leaned slightly away and said in a less quiet voice, “So Tee called and said that he and Bohn were drinking after the game last night and were hung over today.”

“It sounded to me like he was still drunk though,” Mek said as he appeared at Boss’ side. King understood immediately why Boss had changed the subject so quickly. Mek was drinking from a bottle of juice.

“Hey! I thought we were too broke to splurge on anything extra,” Boss complained.

“I was thirsty!” Mek said with a frown.

“And did it cross your mind that I might want one, too?” Boss asked with irritation.

Mek shook his head, “Honestly, I didn’t even think about you.” Then he grinned and reached into his backpack and pulled out another bottle of juice. He handed it to Boss. “I didn’t forget you!” He said with a laugh.

They shared a smile that made King feel like they were having a private moment. King excused himself to go buy himself something to drink. After that talk with Boss, his heart was still beating rather quickly and his mouth felt like it was a desert.

During class he had the row to himself since Bohn and Tee weren’t there. He got out his paper and pen to take notes. He didn’t really need them for himself, but he knew they would hit him up for them later.

He jotted down a few things, but then his mind began to wander. He was pulled out of his reverie when he felt the back of his chair get a kick. Startled, he turned around and saw Mek and Boss glaring at him.

“Stop clicking your pen! You are irritating the shit out of us!” Mek hissed.

King became aware of other students in the nearby rows also giving him the same look. He whispered, “Sorry!” and turned back to his place to lay down the pen. He looked at the page of his ‘notes’ and realized that he had been doodling while he was lost in his thoughts. Although he was no artist, he could plainly see that he had drawn Ram’s dreamcatcher tattoo and beside it, he had drawn Ram’s sunglasses. At the bottom of the page, near the corner, he had drawn a tent. He gulped when he saw that and quickly looked around to see if anyone else had seen. The other students were all occupied with their own things, and some were actually listening to the lecture, so no one had paid attention to what he had drawn.

He wanted to rip up the page and throw the evidence away, but that would make too much noise. Instead he folded it as many times as he could, until it was a tiny, thick square, and he put it into his checkered bag. He picked his pen back up and began to copy the information the professor had written on the board.

As soon as class ended, he was on his phone before he was out of the building. He ordered Ram’s lunch plus the prettiest slice of cake they had for his mother. He was planning on visiting her after he brought Ram back to school.

Luckily they had everything ready for him when he arrived to pick it up. He hurried back to the school to find Ram waiting for him.

“Go ahead!” King urged as he pulled away from the curb, “You don’t have much time to eat!”

Ram nodded and reached for the bag. He opened it up and then turned to look at King with a puzzled frown.

“Oh..no…the other bag is for you. That is for…” King paused and raked his hair back. He hadn’t wanted to mention that he was going to visit his mother since Ram couldn’t visit his. He struggled for a moment and then decided to be honest. “It’s for my mother,” he admitted. “I am going to have lunch with her.”

Ram gave a slight nod of acknowledgment and then reached for the other bag.

When they arrived at the condo’s parking lot and Ram finished his lunch, he hurried in to collect the dogs and take them for their walk. King sat alone in the car to wait for him. He picked up his phone and toyed with the idea of going onto the game chat and catching up with everybody. He hadn’t been on it since Tuesday. He then remembered that being on that site was how Perth had found him before which led them to spending the afternoon together. He quickly decided not to go on and laid his phone back down.

After dropping Ram back off at school, King flipped the lock switch to engage the locks on all of the doors, rolled up his windows, turned on the air conditioner, and blasted his music as he left the parking lot. As he approached the stop sign, he carefully looked both ways, and then drove through it without stopping. He didn’t exhale fully until he left the college grounds, knowing that he had avoided running into Perth.

His mother had lunch ready for them by the time he arrived. She was excited about the cake and insisted on sharing it with him. They spent time catching up on the family gossip and King learned that his sister, Kumfah, and her family would be back home Sunday afternoon. His stomach dropped when he heard that. As soon as she was home she would hit her social media sites and would soon learn about Ram having an identical twin that was in town, and about that stupid poll; he felt it in his gut. He could imagine how excited she was going to be, exactly like how Tee had predicted, and how she would start bugging him about it.

He slid out his phone to check the time and saw that he had received more messages from Perth. He could see the text from the last one without opening it. It was from ten minutes previously, and Perth was asking where he was. He saw that Perth had sent sixteen messages—counting the six that he hadn’t read from the previous night. He sighed and shut his phone back off.

“I have something I have to do this afternoon,” he said to his mother. “I need to go get cleaned up first.”

“Oh?” she asked with a grin. “I knew something was up with you. It is written all over your face. Looks to me like you aren’t sleeping much, either. Are you ready to confess to your mother?”

King laughed, “Sorry Mom! Nothing to confess. I’ve just been very busy lately with school and I have been in a gaming tournament this week. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for sleeping.”

She wrinkled her nose, “Gaming! That’s no fun!”

King grinned, “I like gaming, even if you don’t!”

She shook her head at him in disgust, “You with your gaming reminds me of my husband with his golfing!”

“Well, I guess that means that ‘your husband’ and I must be related!” King laughed and ducked to avoid the throw pillow she tossed his way. “I will say goodbye before I leave,” he promised.

“You’d better or else all the cake in the world won’t be enough to bribe me into doing your laundry!” she called to his retreating back.

King entered his bedroom and stopped at his desk. He picked up his mini terrarium. “Hello! Oh, look at how much you’ve grown!” He turned the terrarium around until he had examined all of the tiny plants inside. “I’ve really missed you! Did you miss me?” He was quiet for a moment and then grinned, “No answer. That means yes!” He laughed and sat the terrarium back in its spot. He opened his checkered bag and pulled out the tiny, thick square of folded paper. He smoothed it out and looked at the doodles on it. He shook his head. He really needed to stop doing things like that, he scolded himself. He was about to tear it up and throw it away, but he stopped himself. If he did that, there was a chance his mother would find it. He knew she would take the time to piece it back together. He would never be able to explain it and he knew she would be able to read his face and possibly start figuring out…stuff. Whatever the ‘stuff’ was, King would not allow himself to acknowledge.

He took one of his books down from the shelf, saw it was on exotic fungi, and knew she would never look in it. He slid the sheet in between some pages of the book and returned it to its spot on the shelf.

He checked the time on his phone and saw that if he hurried, he could squeeze in a shower before he had to leave. He headed to his closet to find something to wear.

The first shirt he saw was the one that Ram had borrowed the night Kumfah had accidentally dumped water on him. King remembered how Ram had been so angry with him for telling her that Ram’s voice was high-pitched like a girl’s, that he had given the shirt to Duen to give to Bohn to give to King, so that he could avoid seeing King again. When Bohn had handed King the shirt, with tons of questions that King refused to answer, King had immediately noticed that it was softer than it had been. And once he was alone, he noticed that it smelled different…better, than his other clothes. Ram used different laundry products than King. King always meant to ask him about it but never remembered when they were together.

He took it down and smelled it. Even though it had been a while, it still smelled nice. And familiar. It actually kind of smelled a little like…King stopped the thought and pushed it away. Obviously people smelled a bit like the products they used. There wasn’t anything unusual about that, he reasoned with himself.

He examined the shirt. It was plain whereas most of his shirts had musicians or bands on them. Plain would be better for this, he thought. He carried it with him when he went to his drawers and selected the other clothes he would wear.

After a quick shower, he dumped his dirty school uniform into the hamper. He hurriedly got dressed and ran out of the door, stopping momentarily to give his mother a hug. She joked with him that she wasn’t going to wash the clothes that he left, but he knew she would. He was still laughing as he left the house.

He locked his checkered bag in the trunk and took off back towards town. He drove past the place and parked about a block away, in a public parking lot that was off the street. He didn’t want to take the chance of anyone seeing his car.

He got out of the car and began to walk back to the place. His heart was racing and his stomach felt like it was in a knot. A few times he even thought about turning back, but he forced himself to keep going.

When he opened the door and stepped inside, he saw a man and a woman discussing something together at the desk. The man had been leaning over a bit to speak to her. He straightened up when he saw King enter.

The man looked at his watch and then greeted King with a smile. “You are a bit early. You must be anxious to begin.”

King recognized him even before he spoke. They had talked together on video chat a few times. King licked his dry lips and gave a small nod.

The man smiled warmly and motioned with his head, “Follow me.”

As they entered the room, the man turned to King, “Would you like to talk for a while first?”

King shook his head and wiped the sweat from his brow. He was nervous and he knew it showed.

“Okay, but before we start, remember…what you say goes. You are in charge. If you say ‘stop’, it stops. Go ahead and take a seat. Try to relax and I will be back in a few minutes.”

King sat down and watched the man walk out. He tried to take some deep, slow breaths to calm himself. He was surprised that he had managed to gather up the courage to do this. He had thought vaguely of doing it for years, but it wasn’t until after he met Ram that it seemed like something he would want to pursue. As time had gone on, and he and Ram had become closer, it was suddenly all he could think about.

King’s heart leapt and started to pound hard in his chest when the door opened. The man entered and he had it lying in his hand. As King looked at it from his seat, he felt an odd mixture of relief and dismay. He got up and walked a few steps closer to the man so he could get a better look at it.

“It’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be,” he said. Even to his own ears, he could hear the disappointment.

The man laughed, “For now, yeah. But he will get bigger.”

“But…I mean…how is this going to work? Nobody could possibly be afraid of something this small!” King protested.

At that moment, the puppy raised his head and peeked at King from above the psychiatrist’s fingers. King involuntarily backed up a step.

The doctor smiled at King. “I think he will do perfectly. Are you okay with him being in the room?”

King nodded and then walked back to his seat. As he sat down, he could feel his legs shaking a bit and was disgusted at his reaction. It was just a tiny puppy. Nothing to be afraid of, he scolded himself. But yet, he was afraid.

The doctor took a seat facing King, but far enough away so that King wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. “I can see the struggle on your face. I bet you are arguing with yourself over the logic of being afraid of a puppy. It is a phobia, King. Phobias are emotional, not logical. As you know, there are many theories on how to overcome a phobia—and in my opinion, like I told you during our first chat, the practice of throwing yourself right in the middle of a scary situation to try to overcome it, is not what I think is the most effective way. I want us to work together, with little NaYo here, to overcome it slowly and gently. You’ve had the phobia for years; we need to give it time to heal. I believe that if the vicious dog that attacked you as a child had still been around your grandmother’s home, you forcing yourself to confront it could have been detrimental to your recovery.” He picked up one of NaYo’s paws and looked at it. “You said that the dog that attacked you was big and black. We had to do some fast searching, but we got lucky with little NaYo here. As you can see, he is solid black, and judging by the size of his paws to his limbs, he will be a huge dog one day. My hope is that by the time he grows up, you will be able to see him as NaYo, not just as a dog. In the meantime, you and I will train NaYo how to work with others who have a phobia of dogs.”

This got King’s interest. He relaxed in his seat and focused more on the conversation than on being scared. “How are we going to train him? What are we going to do?”

“Well, we’ll be starting with the basics, you know—sit, stay, fetch. How to walk on a leash, and of course we will have to teach him to be housebroken—that is a must! Other places he goes to will demand that. And then we will progress…”

“Other places?” King interrupted.

“Oh yes! You are my only dog phobia patient, but there are lots all around the country. Once you have successfully completed therapy, NaYo will be sent to other places to help,” the doctor said while scratching NaYo’s head. NaYo’s ears were flopping back and forth across his head and his tail was wagging at the attention.

“You mean he isn’t your dog?”

The doctor laughed, “No, he isn’t mine. I already have a dog and he does not like to share my attention. No, NaYo is a working dog. His mission in life will be to help people for a while and then move on to the next place where he can be of use.”

“You mean he won’t ever have a real home? Wow. That kind of sucks for him, doesn’t it?” King looked at the little puppy with compassion.

“It is always possible that he could have a real home. You and I could help to increase his odds. If we teach him how to be a very, very good boy, perhaps a patient might decide to keep him at the end of their therapy. It happens sometimes.”

King felt a little comforted by that. He nodded, “So after the basics, what else can we teach him that might help him to eventually get a home?”

The doctor smiled, “You have a great attitude; you are very empathetic. You would be surprised at how few people would actually care. Unfortunately, I see it a lot in my practice. How about instead of referring to your visits here as ‘therapy’, why don’t we call them…” he paused and thought about it. “How about ‘NaYo Party’? It will just be us, getting together a few times a week to chat a bit and to train NaYo!”

King smirked. He knew that the doctor was just making the sound of therapy more appealing, but it actually did make King feel better about it. “Okay, ‘NaYo Party’ it is then.” He looked at NaYo and noticed the puppy had lowered his head but his hindquarters were up high and his tail was wagging as he looked at King. “Why is he doing that?”

The doctor grinned and scratched behind NaYo’s ears. “He is young, and he smells youth on you. Around here, we are all a bunch of aunties and uncles. He is hoping that you will play with him and be his friend.”

“I thought dogs smelled fear on people.”

“Yes, that’s right, they do. But a good dog will try to help someone who is fearful. I bet in your life you have met people who want to help you if you are ill or upset, and you have probably met people who will either not care or will try to make it worse. Dogs are the same. Most are good and helpful; some are not. I wish I could tell you that all dogs are wonderful and that once we have finished our NaYo Parties, that you will never meet a mean dog again—but I would be lying. I can, however, tell you that truly mean dogs are few and far between. The vast majority of dogs are our friends and want us to feel safe around them and to have fun.”

King immediately flashed on the night before, when he had that horrible headache. Ram and Perth had reacted to it like how the doctor had just explained. King thought, “Ram is the good dog,” and grinned at the thought. He already had known that though.

The doctor leaned forward in his chair. “An amusing thought?”

King gave a small shrug; he could feel his cheeks getting hot and his grin getting bigger. “I was just thinking about…it’s nothing really.” He sighed, “I had a bad headache last night and one of my friends was ‘a good dog’.”

The doctor gave a small nod. “Where on your head was the headache?” When King showed him the areas, the doctor again nodded. “That area is generally where tension headaches occur. Were you stressing out about something?”

King shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe a bit. School and everything,” he paused, “Also, I am in a gaming tournament and it is not as fun as I thought it would be. It’s over tomorrow night though, so it’s no big deal.”

“So, your friend who was the ‘good dog’, was that Ram?”

King startled, “Yeah, it was. How did you..?”

“When we were video chatting, you spoke of Ram and his dogs staying in your condo with you. I assumed it was him because you have described him as being very kind. He sounds like he is a ‘good dog’ kind of person.”

Suddenly, and without any warning, NaYo barked loudly. King jerked sideways in his seat to get as far away from NaYo as possible. “Why did he do that?”

The doctor laughed, “I suspect he is tired of all this talk and wants to play. Your call…do I take him out of here, or would you be okay with him on the floor across the room?”

King swallowed hard and then nodded, “He can play in here.”

The doctor carried the puppy over to his desk where he picked up a ball. He sat NaYo on the floor and then sat down beside him. He rolled the ball across the floor and NaYo ran after it. He didn’t seem to know how to synchronize his feet so his hind legs seem to be moving faster than his front. His ears flopped as he ran. He lunged at the ball and the ball rolled under his weight. NaYo flipped over onto his side. When he jumped up, one of his ears lay across the top of his head, touching the top of his other ear. King laughed at the sight.

NaYo froze and turned to look at King, and then NaYo began to sprint in his direction. King felt overwhelmed with terror and he jumped up and stood on his chair.

The doctor grabbed NaYo in mid-run. “It’s okay! I have him.” The doctor, with NaYo snugly held in his arms, hurried back to the other side of the room.

King slowly slid down the wall until he was again seated in the chair. He kept his legs curled up under him. “Why did he do that?” he asked breathlessly. His heart felt as if it would jump out of his chest.

“I suspect it was because you laughed. He thought you wanted to play. Do you want me to take him away?”

King shook his head. He tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. He cleared his throat instead. “No, he can stay.” King actually felt like running out of the room himself, but he knew that he had to face his fears to overcome them. He acknowledged to himself that the doctor’s selection of a puppy instead of an adult dog was the right choice. No matter how scared King felt, his logic soothed him by the knowledge that NaYo was a baby. He was tiny. He couldn’t actually hurt King. King took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He felt his heart rate begin to slow down. “I’ll…I’ll do it.”

“Do what?”

“I’ll..uh…throw the ball for him,” King finished the sentence in a rush before he could lose his courage. He raked his hair back and felt a few of the hair sticking momentarily against his sweaty palm.

The doctor sat NaYo on the floor and then tossed the ball to King. NaYo came running to King, but this time, King was expecting it. King shook the ball and a tiny bell tinkled inside it. NaYo crouched down with the front of his body, while the back part of him was being tossed side-to-side with the violence of his wagging tail. He uttered a sharp bark of excitement. King froze momentarily and then took some deep breaths. “Go get it!” he said, and then tossed the ball across the room. He still had a bit of adrenaline coursing through him, so the ball went further than he had intended it to go. It hit the door and bounced off, soaring over NaYo’s head. NaYo had to scramble quickly to change direction as the ball came soaring back. It finally landed about midway in the room and NaYo happily tackled it and rolled around with it.

“Wow! You have a heck of a throwing arm! Do you play baseball?” the doctor asked as he sat down next to NaYo.

“No. I’m not really into sports,” he gave an embarrassed laugh, “That was an accident. My nerves have me a bit jumpy.”

“You are doing amazingly well! Far better than I had even hoped.” The doctor snagged the ball from NaYo and tossed it back to King. This time when King threw it, he was careful to keep it in the main area of the room.

When the doctor tossed it back, King tossed it back to him. They tossed the ball back and forth a few times, which made NaYo bark in frustration. He seemed to want to remind them he was still there and wanted to play. They both laughed at that and King tossed the ball to NaYo.

“So, you’re not into sports, what are you into?” The doctor asked.

King told the doctor about his love of plants, he talked about his classes at school, his family, and he even talked about his group of friends. As he talked, he relaxed and eventually put his feet back on the floor. NaYo was happy that they were still playing ball with him so he was occupied with it.

“You like video games, but you said earlier that you weren’t enjoying the tournament that you are in right now. Why is that?”

King sighed and raked his hair back, “I don’t know…the game is fun. It’s just,” he paused, “I think it is Perth. He has a way of…it’s weird, but…he twists things around so much that I can’t figure out…” he shrugged, “I can’t figure _him_ out, to be honest.”

“And Perth is who? You haven’t mentioned him to me.”

“Oh. Sorry. He’s Ram’s brother. His identical twin brother.”

“I see,” the doctor nodded. “So…do you like Perth?”

“He’s Ram’s brother,” King answered.

“That isn’t an answer.”

King gave a small laugh. “I had the same thought when I asked Ram if he liked him. His answer was, ‘He’s my brother’. Anyway, I do and I don’t. He is very changeable so that’s why I feel both ways I guess. But overall…he’s pushy and it is irritating.” King felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. Saying it out loud felt freeing. “But he will be gone soon. He had some trouble at school but it has been ironed out. He will be going back to the UK. And the tournament is over tomorrow, so after that, I won’t be seeing him much, I’m sure.”

The doctor nodded. “I’m glad. He sounds very disrupting.”

King glanced at NaYo and saw he was finishing up moving his bowels in a corner. “Uh-oh!” he said and pointed.

The doctor got up from the floor with a laugh. “Well, I guess what they always say is true. ‘It’ happens!” He walked to a door that King had assumed was a closet, but when the doctor opened it, King could see it was a tiny restroom. NaYo followed him inside.

King rested his head back on his chair and examined the ceiling. He was feeling a great relief after telling the doctor about Perth. It was true what the doctor had said. Perth was a disrupting presence in their lives. Things would be better after he was gone back to the UK.

Suddenly King felt a small amount of weight on his foot. His heart began to race. He knew without looking that it was NaYo…touching him. King wanted to yank his foot away but he was afraid what would happen if he did. He took a couple of deep breaths and leaned forward to look.

NaYo had curled up on the floor next to him and was resting his chin on the top of King’s foot. He seemed to be asleep. King wiggled is toes a bit to test him, but NaYo remained where he lay. He thought, in a panic, _“Of all the places in the room, why did it have to be on me?!!”_ But he knew the answer. NaYo liked him.

He looked down at the sleeping puppy and felt a smile come across his face. NaYo was just a baby, very much like a human baby. He had played hard, made a poop, and then fell asleep. He looked closely at the NaYo’s fur. It was long and shiny, with a tiny bit of curl at the very ends. It looked like it would feel silky.

King ran his finger tips against his pants. He remembered the fur of the dog that had attacked him when he was little. He had tried to push it away and he remembered the dog’s coat. It had felt coarse and rough. He wondered if NaYo’s just looked silky but would actually be rough. He slowly lowered his hand down a bit and then drew it back quickly, with a racing heart.

He couldn’t believe he had even thought about touching a dog! He looked back at NaYo and saw that he was still sleeping. He reached back down, this time using only one finger, keeping the others curled tightly into his palm. The tip of his finger made contact with NaYo’s fur on his back. King kept an alert watch on NaYo’s eyes, but they stayed closed. King slowly stroked one tiny piece of his fur. It was even softer and silkier than he thought it would be. NaYo sighed contentedly in his sleep and King smiled at him and then slowly pulled back his hand.

He heard the toilet flush and then water running in the sink. Soon the doctor returned to the room. He smiled when he saw NaYo asleep on King’s foot. “He really likes you! And look at you! You keep this up and you will overcome this phobia in no time!” He picked up NaYo. “Come on, little fella. Time for you to go to your bed!”

Right before the doctor, with NaYo in his arms, reached the door; NaYo raised his head and looked back at King. He made a tiny whine in his throat. King couldn’t help but smile. He waved goodbye to the puppy. The doctor laughed and stroked the puppy’s head as they exited to the outer hallway, “You already love him, don’t you, boy?”

The doctor came back into the room, after depositing NaYo somewhere, and he and King discussed their session. They scheduled more “NaYo Parties”. By the time King left, he was feeling really great.

He checked his phone and saw that he still had time to kill before it was time to pick up Ram. He also saw that he had missed three calls from Perth. He shook his head at that and then turned his phone back off. He hopped in his car, turned on his music, and drove around aimlessly, just enjoying life for the first time in a while, until it was time to pick up Ram.

He parked in a spot at the Engineering Department's parking lot and got out of the car. He brought along his cup containing a soft drink that he had purchased during his ride. He leaned against the front of the car and searched the path from the school for Ram, even though he knew he was still early. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Perth emerge from behind a tree. King wondered if he had been hiding there, but pushed the idea aside as being crazy. King turned his head and watched him approach.

“So?” Perth asked with a frown, “Why didn’t you answer when I called you?”

“Did you call me? That’s weird; my phone didn’t ring!” King feigned innocence as he pulled out his phone and examined it. “Oh! The ringer was turned off!” He examined his missed messages, “Wow! You sent seventeen messages and called four times! Did you have an emergency?”

Perth was taken aback and had a confused look on his face. “No, not an emergency. I was just trying to find you. I thought since you had the afternoon off, we could hang out together. I went to your condo but you weren’t there.”

King detected something of a challenge in that last sentence. He shook his head, “No, I was busy this afternoon.”

The alert sounded on King’s phone that announced an incoming message. King looked down at his phone and saw it was from the psychiatrist’s office. King assumed that it was confirmation for his next appointment. He opened it and saw it was a picture. It was the moment when King had stroked the tiny curl on the back of a sleeping NaYo. In the picture, King is smiling. The doctor had included a message, _“I returned from the restroom to make sure I had gotten the mess all cleaned up and saw what was happening. Thankfully, I had my phone with me and was able to catch this moment. Keep this picture, King. It is a souvenir of your first major victory in the battle against your phobia. You are doing amazing and you should be proud of yourself!”_ King felt an overwhelming rush of happiness. He was grinning when he closed the message and looked back at Perth.

“I take it that was something special by the look on your face,” he said with a scowl. “Listen, I only stopped by here to let you know I am having dinner with friends. I will be at your condo in time for the game.” Before King could answer, Perth turned on his heel and stormed off in the opposite direction.

“This day just keeps getting better and better,” King mumble to himself as he watched Perth’s retreating back. He opened the doctor’s message again and stared at the picture. He was still looking at it when Ram arrived.

King quickly exited out of the message and slid the phone into his pocket. “Hi!” he said, “Perth was just by here. He is eating dinner with some friends and then coming to the condo at game time. So it is just us for dinner.”

Ram nodded and King could detect a trace of a smile on his lips. King threw away his now empty glass and climbed into the driver’s seat. When he started the car, the radio came on, blasting music. He quickly shut it off. “Sorry!” he said.

He shot Ram a glance and found that Ram was studying him. “Good day?” Ram asked.

King could feel his cheeks grow warm. He had this intense desire to show Ram the picture of he and NaYo and tell him all about his day, but he stifled it. He decided that he would tell Ram all about it once he had progressed further. He was a bit afraid of failing, and if he did fail, he didn’t want Ram to know about it. So he just nodded and said ‘Yes’.

After they arrived at the condo, King went to the kitchen while Ram prepared the dogs for their walk, just as he always did. But this time, he listened to them instead of tuning them out. He could hear the low hum of Ram speaking to them and their answering him with whines and little whimpers. King had always known that Ram loved his dogs but now he realized that they loved Ram, too. He vaguely wondered if he would ever be able to know them. A part of his mind shuddered at the thought, but another part of it thought it might be possible someday.

While Ram was gone, King went to pick up the food they had decided on for dinner. He made it home only a few moments before Ram did. During dinner King asked Ram how his classes were going. Ram looked at him out of the corner of his eye and shrugged. “Not great,” he admitted.

King thought back to the times he was playing the tournament games and noticing Ram sitting alone at the table, doing homework. He felt a wave of guilt wash over him. “After we finish dinner, why don’t we go over it together?”

Ram gave him a look of gratitude and nodded. As soon as the last bite was eaten, Ram bounded up from the table and brought back his books. King got out some paper and his ink pen and made notes of everything they discussed so Ram would be able to refer back to them if he needed to.

Ram was working on the last problem and King saw that he had everything correct. He tapped Ram on the arm with his pen. Ram looked over at him. “The next time you run into a problem,” King said, “tell me! I don’t mind helping you, but I have to know when you need it.”

“Thanks,” Ram said, and finished his last problem and showed it to King.

“It’s perfect,” King said as he pushed the pile of notes over to him, “I made you these. You’re doing great!” Ram looked at him with scorn. King laughed, “I mean it! First year is the roughest. All of my friends had trouble, and look at them now!”

Ram made a dismissive face and King laughed, “Okay, they’re not perfect, but they are doing fine in their classes.”

King sat up the game player and soon Perth arrived. He had barely managed to make it there in time for the start so there wasn’t any time to talk, which suited King.

At one point during their game, Ram left to walk the dogs again. After he returned, he took a shower and then came into the living room. He sat across the room and read a book. King noticed that Perth seemed to be distracted by Ram’s presence. “Perth! Duck!” King called as he saw a zombie preparing to take a bite out of Perth. Perth obviously had been unaware that it was near him. Perth ducked his player and King shot the zombie in the head. A message came on the screen that Perth had been injured, but not bitten. They would have points deducted from their final score, but Perth was still in the game. Perth grounded his teeth together and shot a look at Ram, who was obliviously reading his book.

“It’s okay. You are still in the game and we can make up the points. Let’s go over to that barn. Zombies are always hiding in places like that. We can kill a bunch of them and it will up our score.” King tried to make Perth feel a bit better but he could see it really wasn’t working well, even though Perth followed his suggestion.

As soon as the game was over, Perth stood up. “I figure you two old grandpas would be too tired to take me home so I told my friend I would come back to his house. He’s invited some people over and we are going to party tonight. The two of you should try it sometime. You might discover that you aren’t actually ancient.” He stormed out of the condo.

Ram got up and locked the outside door. He came back and gave King a small smile. “This grandpa is going to bed now. Phu is coming to pick me up for class tomorrow, so you can sleep in.”

“I would have taken you!” King insisted.

“I know. But you don’t have any classes, so you shouldn’t have to get up early,” Ram objected.

“Okay. Are you sure?”

Ram nodded, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” King called to Ram’s retreating back.

As soon as he was alone, he opened the picture of him and NaYo. He felt that same rush of happiness as he had earlier. He looked at it for a while, and then popped his headphones in. He went to one of his favorite game sites and picked his favorite game. He hadn’t played it for a couple of weeks.

A few hours later he noticed the time and signed out of the game. He had showered earlier at his parent’s house, but he thought taking another one would help him to rest better. He hated feeling sticky and sweaty.

He quietly crept into the bedroom to get his clothes. Ram was in his regular spot and he was asleep. King thought that Ram must have been super tired when he had gone to bed because he had forgotten to turn the light out on the bedside table on King’s side of the bed. The light helped King move around, gathering his clothes, without making too much noise. When he had everything he needed, he walked over and turned off the bedside light and made his way to the door. As he was closing it behind him, he looked back and saw that Ram had turned in the bed and was watching him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I forgot to get my clothes. Go back to sleep; I won’t bother you again.”

After his shower, he made up his bed on the couch. When he plugged in his phone, he couldn’t resist looking at the picture again. He smiled when he turned off his phone. He snuggled down and got comfortable. He thought about how great the day had been and how the next day was the last of the tournament. He would be able to sidestep away from Perth once it was over. And as a bonus, he didn’t even have to wake up early in the morning. He felt as if things were on their way back to normal again. He fell asleep with a smile.


	9. Chapter 9

King rolled over and pulled his pillow tightly over his ears to block out the persistent banging. As the sound continued, King lowered the pillow a bit and listened. He realized that someone was knocking on his door.

He jumped up and made his way to the door on wobbly legs that were still sleeping. He was rubbing his eyes as he opened the door.

“Thank goodness! I have been pounding on your door for ages! I can’t believe you were still sleeping!” Perth said rapidly as he pushed past him. He kicked off his shoes and hurried into the living room, with a speechless King trailing behind him. “You have slept the day away!”

King looked at the window and judged the time by the sunlight coming through. It was later than he usually slept, but it wasn’t that late. “Is there some kind of emergency?”

“Yes! Of a most extreme kind!” Perth answered with a grin. “Well, no, not actually an emergency, exactly. More like an urgency. But it is very vital!”

King sighed. It was difficult to handle Perth at the best of times, and not even being fully awake yet certainly didn’t help. Plus, he felt as if his bladder was full to near bursting. “What is it?” he asked. He could hear the impatience in his voice.

Perth looked taken aback for a moment, but then became even more animated. “It’s a party! We are going to have an end of the tournament party tomorrow! My father’s assistants have been working on the arrangements since dawn. I’ve already announced it on the game chat. Everyone is so excited about it!”

King blinked and shook his head. “Okay? I don’t understand then. Why does your party have anything to do with me?”

“OUR party,” Perth corrected. “The tournament was a joint effort!”

King shifted his weight, trying to postpone a restroom trip that was becoming more urgent. “But if your father’s assistants have been working on it…what else needs to be done?”

“Just everything! They have found a few venues that we have to choose between, bands, flowers, food…everything!”

“I have to pee,” King said as he turned to leave. “We can discuss this when I am done.”

“Okay, sure. Sure! Take your time!”

King made it to the bathroom in time, but barely. After he emptied his bladder, he washed his hands and then threw some cold water on his face to help him wake up. He brushed his teeth and combed his hair. Then he took some deep breaths, letting them out slowly. Finally he felt ready to face Perth’s high energy.

When he opened up the door, Perth was standing there with King’s clothes in his hands. “I thought maybe you would like to go ahead and get dressed. I like this band,” he said as he handed King a tee shirt that he had gotten from King’s closet. “And these pants look comfortable but presentable.”

King looked at the clothes and nodded. He would have probably made the same choices. It did irritate him to know that Perth had been in his drawers and closet though. It irritated him a lot. “They’re fine,” King said accepting the pants. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

He shut the door and then angrily sighed. He had hoped that after the tournament ended tonight, he would be free of Perth. He calmed himself with the thought that after the party tomorrow, that would be it. If Perth came around the condo to see Ram, King was going to find ways to make himself scarce. As it was, it seemed like he was spending a lot more time with Perth than Ram was. It shouldn’t be that way. The two brothers should spend some bonding time together.

He looked at his clothes in his hands and decided instead of just putting them on, he would shower first. He placed them on the counter and left the bathroom.

“Hey! What’s wrong?” Perth asked as he hurried in from the living room. “Did I forget something?”

King shook his head, “No, I decided I wanted to shower. I need some underwear.”

“You know,” Perth said as he leaned against the dresser while King searched through his drawer, “I just feel like somehow we have grown apart the last few days. I wonder if it is because of your headache the other night. Maybe you feel as if I wasn’t supportive enough of your pain.”

King pushed closed his drawer after selecting the underwear he wanted. “No, you were fine. I mean, we haven’t grown apart—we barely know each other.”

“I don’t feel that way at all!” Perth objected in a shocked voice. “I feel as if I have known you forever. As if we were destined to meet. No one gets me the way you do! It’s almost like we are on the same wavelength. For instance, the way we play the game together. It is as if we are one person. I have always wanted that kind of connection.”

King’s mind automatically flashed onto Ram. Perth had mentioned more than once about how they didn’t have twin intuition. It must have been something that Perth had craved since he was now projecting that onto King. He frowned a bit. It seemed as if Perth should have some kind of connection with his family members and his friends. Instead he was clinging onto King. King knew that needed to be nipped in the bud very quickly. He thought about the plans he had made in the bathroom earlier. He felt that these kinds of statements just reinforced the idea that he really needed to find a way to start avoiding Perth. And he would; as soon as the party was over.

“I had better get a shower now, since we have so much to do,” King said. He hurried back to the bathroom and locked the door behind him once he entered.

Usually he was one to take a fast shower. This time, however, he wasn’t in any hurry. Finally though, he couldn’t postpone it any longer. He dropped his dirty clothes off in the hamper in his bedroom and then joined Perth in the living room.

Perth had folded up the comforter that King had used and had placed the pillow on it. They were stacked at the end of the sofa. Perth was lounging at the other end, engrossed in his phone. As soon as King appeared, Perth grinned. He told King he was on the game chat and read some of the comments out loud. It seemed that the main topic of the day was the party. King realized that Perth had been telling the truth earlier when he said that everyone was excited about it. Well, not everyone, King admitted to himself. He wasn’t excited about it at all.

He picked up his bedding from the couch and put it into the closet and then went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the coffee pot was empty. He frowned at that. It was so odd that Ram wouldn’t have left him some. He always made a full pot and there was no way that he could have drunk all that by himself before he went to school. King remembered Ram saying that Phu was coming to get him for school today. They probably had arranged to meet early and have breakfast together. King gave a small smile when he realized how spoiled he had gotten since Ram had been staying at the condo. Ram always had coffee waiting for him, plus a takeout container of breakfast. His stomach gave a growl at the thought.

He was really awful at making coffee; he never seemed to get the measurements right so it was either too weak or too strong. “Hey Perth?” he called, “Do we have time to grab some coffee before we start with all these chores?”

Perth appeared behind him. “Not really, but we will make time. I need you wide awake and alert!”

King went to a drawer and pulled out a pad of paper and an ink pen. “I’m going to leave a note for Ram and let him know what we’re doing.” He jotted a quick note and then put it on the refrigerator under a magnet. “Okay, now let’s go find some coffee!”

They stopped by a tiny coffee shop in the neighborhood to pick up their coffees. King also ordered a doughnut. As he ate the overly sweet and sticky doughnut, he found himself thinking longingly of the breakfasts that Ram ordinarily purchased for him in the morning. Much more savory than sweet. The doughnut felt heavy in his stomach, but he cheered himself up with the idea that at least he wouldn’t go hungry. Especially after seeing the long list of to-do items that Perth had for them. Their first item on the agenda was to select from three venues.

“Wait…why do we need such a huge place?” King asked.

Perth rolled his eyes with a grin, “First of all—no one in their right mind is going to miss this party. So we will have all of the tournament players, and they will all have a plus one. That will leave us with some extra seats to give out to our friends. And…we will have a band, so obviously we will need a separate dance area away from the dining area.”

“This all seems very extravagant. And expensive,” King said, while frowning down at the list.

Perth waved away his objections, “It’s okay! Dad’s company is paying for it. I will set up a little table with some company brochures on it. He will claim it as advertising. Nobody has to pay a cent for it.”

King’s frown deepened. It didn’t sound terribly legal to him. Then he shrugged. His name wasn’t on anything and Perth was going to be the one that signed the contracts, so he wasn’t going to worry about it. “I notice that for every category, there are only three options. How did that happen? Like, for instance, flower vendors. I can think of ten flower shops right off the top of my head, and those are just here locally.”

Perth nodded, “That was what Dad’s assistants were doing all morning. Narrowing down the field so we wouldn’t have so much to do. They found the best three and left the final choices up to us.”

King gave a small nod and rechecked the list, “So it is venues first…that makes sense. Alright, the first place isn’t too far from here.” He put his cup of coffee into the cup holder, slid on Ram’s sunglasses, and started the car.

When they parked outside the first venue, King unlocked the trunk and reached in for his checkered bag where he had put it the day before. He pulled out a notebook and an ink pen. “I figure that we will want to take a lot of notes to help with the decision.”

Perth shifted his weight back a step in surprise. “You really are a genius. I am so glad we are doing this together. I would be lost without you!”

For the next couple of hours they toured the three venues. King was surprised at how long and involved the tours were and the information that was needed to be collected for each place. Finally, after they were finished with the third place, Perth suggested that they stop at a park that was nearby and discuss their choices.

King drove there and they got out and sat together under a tree to talk about everything they had seen.

“Which one do you think was the best one?” Perth asked.

“I don’t know. They all had good points. This party was all your idea and I’m not sure what your vision for it is. Why don’t you make the call on it?”

Perth sighed. He plucked a piece of grass and twisted it around his fingers. He scanned King’s notes, and then shook his head. “I think that is the main problem. I didn’t really have an overall vision of it. I just want it to be special. Memorable.”

King nodded. He pulled off the sunglasses of Ram’s that he had been wearing and hooked them into the top of his shirt. He pulled the notebook over and studied the notes. “Okay, in my opinion, we should cross off the second place. It was filthy. Some of the gunk in the corners and on the baseboards looks like it has been there for years. I highly doubt if it would be any cleaner tomorrow.”

Perth nodded and reached over to the notebook on the ground in front of King and marked it off. “That leaves the first place and the last place. Pros? Cons?”

“The last place was bigger than the first, so that is a pro, but the parking lot was tiny, con. It was very clean and the lighting was decent, pro. But it was farther away from campus, con,” King said as he jotted down his thoughts on the notebook. “Do you have anything to add?”

“Only that the dining area was huge but the dancing area wasn’t very big at all. Especially once you figure in the area that the band will take up.”

“Okay then, the first one we looked at—it was the most modern and since they are just starting out in the business, they were willing to give us a discount. Even though we aren’t paying for it, I do think that should be a pro.”

“Agreed!” Perth said.

“Um…it was clean, well-lit, parking lot was big, close to the campus…I don’t know…I’m having some trouble coming up with cons for the place,” King admitted.

“Then that settles it! That’s where we will have the party!” Perth announced.

King leaned his back against the tree and sighed. Even though it was only one thing off their massive to-do list, it had been an important decision. Now that it was made, he felt as if everything else would fall into place.

Perth called his father’s office and gave them their decision. The office staff would handle all the details. They would also make the calls to notify the places that were not chosen. King felt his muscles relax. He had expected to be the one who got stuck with that job.

Perth lay down on the grass and messed with his phone. He grinned up at King, “I just announced that we had found a location—didn’t tell them where yet, waiting until Dad’s office has the contract—but everybody is excited. Hey, are you getting hungry?”

King shrugged, “I could eat.”

Perth laughed, “Good, because we have three restaurants where we have to do tastings! That’s next on the list.”

King stood up and put the sunglasses back on, “I will do my best, but three? Ugh. You have to do most of it.”

Perth squeezed King’s arm affectionately and laughed, “Eating is my specialty!”

Even though King only took small bites of food, by the time they left the second restaurant, he was stuffed. “You will have to eat the most at the next place. I am filled up!”

Perth laughed, “I’m just getting started!”

When they walked into the third place, the aromas coming from the kitchen were some of the best ones that King had ever smelled. One bite of the tasting platter and King knew. He looked up to find Perth looking at him. Perth grinned. “This is it!” he announced. King nodded happily. He managed to find enough space in his stomach to take a taste of everything. Perth called his father’s office before they even finished the tasting.

When they got back into the car, King took Ram’s sunglasses off the neckline of his shirt where they had been hanging, and slid them on. “What is next on the list?”

Perth got it out of his pocket and unfolded it. “We still have to find a florist, a band, and a photographer.”

King frowned and turned his head to look at Perth. “A photographer? That wasn’t on the list earlier, was it?”

“Well… no, not exactly. I was thinking about parties I have gone to in the past and I remembered that photo booths were really popular, so when I called my father’s office about our food vendor selection, I mentioned it. The staff members are looking for places now.”

“I guess a photo booth is a good idea. I’ve seen them in shows, but I don’t believe I have ever been to a party that had one.”

Perth grinned, “I’m glad I can introduce you to something new then.” He leaned back in his seat and gave a contented sigh. “This is going to be the party of the century!” He then frowned. “I just wish we didn’t have to have a cash bar. Dad should pay for that, too!”

“I suspect it would harder to write that off. I imagine there will be a lot more drinking at this party than there would be at a business function,” King opined.

“You have obviously never been to a business party,” Perth scoffed. He picked up King’s sunglasses from the console and put them on, “But I guess it doesn’t matter. When I announced on the game chat that it was going to be a cash bar, no one complained.”

King nodded, “Everyone is used to buying their own. So…the list? Where are we going now?”

Perth read off the three florists on the list. “Do you know any of these places?”

King laughed, “I know ALL of these places. The first two are apart of chains; the last one is locally-owned. It is right behind the campus. Lots of people from the college go there.” He paused for a moment and remembered Duen buying flowers for Bohn there. He also remembered shopping there himself. He smiled at the memory.

Perth moved in his seat to see King better. “Interesting. Would you care to share what you are thinking about?”

“They have great plants there,” King answered with a grin.

“Oh,” Perth gave a sniff and seemed to lose interest. “I think our best bet would be to cross them off the list and go check out the other two. The ones that are connected to chains will be able to fill orders better.”

King nodded, “That’s half true.”

Perth turned to look at him with a scowl. “What do you mean ‘half true’?”

“If they had a lot of notice, I would agree. But they have their stuff shipped to them, so would a big order make it here overnight? Whereas the local place doesn’t ship their flowers and plants in, they buy from local wholesalers. And since it is such short notice…”

Perth nodded, “That makes a lot of sense! So we should actually go see them first!”

“That’s what I would do,” King said, shifting the car into gear. “So, is that where we are going?”

“Yes, it does make the most sense to go there first,” Perth answered and a few seconds later, he gave a quiet giggle.

“Something funny?” King asked in surprise.

“No, not really. I was just thinking about something,” Perth paused for, what felt to King like, a dramatic moment. “You are supposed to be a genius, but…I was smart enough to pick you to help me run the tournament and to be my personal chauffeur. I guess that makes me the real genius!”

King laughed at that. “I guess that’s true,” he said. He turned to look at Perth but found that Perth was looking at his phone. “On the game chat?”

“What? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Everyone is excited about tomorrow. Are you?”

King grinned, “Not at the moment, but maybe after we get all the arrangements made I will be.”

Soon King turned into the parking lot of the florist. Perth grumbled, “I didn’t realize it would be such a tiny place. I’m sure they won’t be able to handle what we need.”

King finished parking the car and turned it off, “Well, since we are already here, it would be rude to not hear them out.” He pocketed the keys and stepped out of the car, “Come on!”

Perth reluctantly got out of the car and followed King into the building. They were greeted by a kind-faced, motherly-type woman, whom King guessed was the owner.

“Hello!” she greeted them. “Are you the ones who are looking for flowers for the game tournament tomorrow?”

Perth was scanning the display area with a slight frown. King was aghast at his bad manners. “Yes, ma’am,” King answered.

“I am afraid I forgot to tell the woman on the phone something that might cause you not to select our shop. One of my sons is playing in your tournament. It didn’t even occur to me to tell her when she called.” The woman said apologetically.

King looked to Perth, who had still not acknowledged the woman’s presence. “No, that won’t be a problem,” King said, making the decision on his own since Perth couldn’t seem to be bothered.

The woman let out a sigh and then beamed at them. “I’m glad! I have been designing some centerpieces to show you since right after I got the call. If you will follow me back to the workspace, I would love to show them to you.”

King was stunned when they went into the workspace. She had only a few hours but had created over a dozen arrangements. He looked over at Perth and saw that some of the blandness had disappeared from his face. He even looked a bit impressed.

“These are all red and white—the lady on the phone told me those colors go with the banner for the game site that will be hung for the party. If you don’t like these colors though, I can recreate these designs in other colors. Or if you have an idea for a design, I would be glad to create it for you!” she explained.

King walked to the table and began to examine the arrangements closely. He could see the skill and care in the creation of each one. Perth trailed along behind him.

“If we were to choose you, are you sure you would be able to fulfill the order?” Perth asked the woman.

“Oh yes! Very sure. Before I chose the flowers for each arrangement, I called growers in the area to make sure there would be enough.”

Perth nodded, “But the work…how could you get it all accomplished in such a short time.”

“I have three grown sons who will help me. Plus a lot of friends have offered to pitch in,” she answered.

Perth nodded again, “And do you think you could get them delivered in time to the event?”

“I am certain of it! We have a truck and some neighbors have offered to help using their own trucks.”

King gave the conversation half of his attention, but the other half was still on the arrangements. There was one that he felt especially drawn to. It had red roses, white chrysanthemums, along with jasmine, and some trailing vines. He reached out with his finger and felt the little vine. He checked inside the container and saw that the vine was in a tiny pot, ready to be transplanted. He knew that the centerpieces would all be snatched up by the guests at the party and taken home. It pleased him to think that all the little vines would be planted in gardens or planters at people’s homes. In truth the vine was barely one step up from a weed—it could be found growing wild in a lot of places, but still, he liked the idea. It was like a lasting gift, instead of just a momentary presentation.

There was a tinkling of a bell and the woman startled, “None of my boys have arrived yet. I must see to this customer.”

King smiled and gave her a nod, and then she left them in the workspace and hurried to the front of the shop.

Perth got very close to King and whispered, “I don’t know much about flowers and things. But these all look really good to me. What do you think?”

King stepped away from him a bit and pretended to be studying the arrangements closer. “Yes, healthy flowers with good fragrance, arranged very tastefully.”

Perth leaned in again, “Which one is the best one?” He picked up the one that King had been admiring earlier, “Is it this one? Is this the one you like the best?”

King gave a small shrug, “Yes, I do. I mean…I don’t know exactly what you had in mind for the flowers, but I personally like this one the best. See the little vines? People can plant them at their homes after the party.”

Perth made a little ‘tsk’ sound, “Yeah, people always steal them, don’t they?”

“It’s not exactly stealing. The containers are disposable and what in the world would party hosts do with all the flowers after the party if people didn’t take them? Also, florists usually put cards on them for advertising. Proves that it is fairly accepted practice to take the centerpiece. The host doesn’t need the florist’s business card—they already know about them,” King defended.

Perth gave a slight affirmative gesture with his head, “I do like the idea of the vines as a bit of a long-term souvenir. Whenever people look at it, they will never forget our party! What do you think? Should we order from here?”

King shrugged, “I don’t know. I really don’t want to be the person who makes the decisions. I’m content to just be the driver.”

Perth laughed, “Okay, I am leaning towards a ‘yes’, for the reasons you said about the quality and those little vines—they are cute. I bet there would be people who would really enjoy them. I know you would! But there is something else, too. I like doing things that haven’t been done before—like with the venue and now with this florist. People won’t be walking into the party and comparing it to other parties they have been to.”

King raked back his hair, “Honestly though, I really don’t see why you are so concerned about things like that. It’s just a bunch of college kids. They’d probably be happy with just a few beers and some snacks.”

Perth frowned and his eyes grew dark, “Well, I wouldn’t be happy to have my name attached to some low-class thing like that!”

“Okay then, I agree with your decision to go with this florist,” King said a bit nervously. He had never seen anyone whose moods changed as drastically and as quickly as Perth’s did. It was unnerving. “Do you think we should visit the other two on the list to be positive?”

“No, I don’t. Like you mentioned earlier…they are both a part of chains. They wouldn’t have designs created just for this occasion like this florist did.” Perth’s frown cleared away and he smiled, “I think this is the perfect choice. Come on, let’s go tell her!” He picked up the centerpiece that had the little vines and hurried out of the workspace. King frowned at that. It was the height of bad manners—she would have returned as soon as she had finished with her customer. Perth should have waited. King sighed and shook his head as he followed in Perth’s wake. At least he would be giving the florist the good news of a large order.

The florist was still wrapping the order of an old man at the counter. The old man was smiling and wiping his eyes. He looked up at Perth and King when they entered the room. “I’m a great-grandfather today!” he said to them. “My grandson and his wife had their baby this morning. It’s a boy! Our family name will live on, long after I am gone!”

King smiled at the man, “Congratulations! My best wishes to you and your family!”

Perth pretended to study the centerpiece he had in his hand. King watched him a moment in surprise and then looked away. He realized that he wasn’t really that surprised at Perth’s behavior, more perplexed. It was an easy thing to be polite to others, but Perth never seemed to want to extend any courtesy. He thought about Ram and compared the two. While it was true that Ram seldom spoke, he would have smiled at the man’s joy. And he would have bowed his head at him. The difference in the two brothers was very evident.

P’First entered the store, just as the old man was leaving. He saw King and gave him a huge smile. “Did you come to see our newest shipment of plants?” he asked.

“No…uh, I’m here about the centerpieces for the party tomorrow,” King answered.

P’First’s face lit up, “Oh! I didn’t know that it was your party!”

“It’s our party,” Perth corrected P’First. Then he smiled slightly, “I take it that you are one of the owner’s sons?”

“Yes, I am her second son.”

“Oh…well, P’King, I can handle this. Go ahead and look at the plants if you like,” Perth said and then turned back to speak to the woman.

King smiled to P’First as he led King over to the plants, telling him all about the new varieties that had recently arrived in the shop. King ground his back teeth together slightly as he thought about the way that Perth had dismissed him. Perth was treating him like a servant. “Only one more day,’ his mind whispered to him. He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. He promised himself that after the party ended, he was going to cut all ties to Perth.

King examined a fern closely that P’First showed him. It was rare and extremely beautiful. The two of them discussed its needs and how to care for it.

“Do you think you would be interested in buying it?” P’First asked.

“I’ll drop by Monday, after my classes. If you still have it, I would love it!”

“Do you want me to save it for you? I could put it in the back…” P’First offered.

“No, I don’t want you to go to any trouble. If someone buys it before I get back, then I will just wait until the next time you have one,” King said as he looked back at Perth. He had a creepy feeling that if Perth knew he was interested in the plant, Perth would buy it for him and King didn’t want to be indebted to him for anything.

P’First noticed the glance and nodded. “I understand,” he said. Then the bell tinkled and P’First smiled, “If you will excuse me, I need to tend to this customer so my mother won’t be interrupted.”

King nodded and went back to examining the plants. He felt something brush against his leg and he looked down to see a huge, fluffy, white cat coiling around his legs. King laughed and bent down to pet the cat. As he leaned forward, Ram’s sunglasses that were hooked onto the neckline of his shirt swung forward and almost fell off. King grabbed them with one hand and petted the cat with the other.

“Where did you come from? You certainly are a beauty!” he said. The cat answered him with a loud purr and butted its head against King’s hand to encourage him to keep petting. King laughed again.

“Looks like you made a friend,” Perth said from only a few feet away. He startled both King and the cat. The cat hissed at Perth and ran away.

“Looks like you didn’t,” King said with a laugh as he rose back to his feet.

Perth sniffed dismissively. “Me and animals…we don’t get along so well. I’ve finished with the order; are you ready to go?” He looked behind King, “Did you find something that you liked? I could…”

“No, they have nice plants, but none that I don’t already have,” King lied. “I’m ready to go. Where to next?”

“Actually, I have some pretty good news. Since we picked this florist, the other two are scratched off the list. The staff at Dad’s office could only find one photographer with a photo booth set up that was available for tomorrow, so they signed them quickly—I hope they are good. Anyway, that basically just leaves us the bands to pick. We had them scheduled for a bit later, but the schedules have been shuffled around, and the first band is ready to play for us now.”

Perth had been explaining this as they walked to the car. King got into the driver’s seat and put on Ram’s sunglasses before starting the car. “That’s great! So tell me where the first stop is.”

They spent the next few hours listening to the first two bands. As they left the second one to go to the third, King shook his head. “Both of the bands we have heard today were excellent! I wouldn’t begin to know which one to choose.”

Perth smiled and leaned back in his seat. He closed his eyes with a sigh. “They both really were amazing. You know, music is my ‘thing’. It’s my passion, like you with your plants. This has been the best part of the entire day for me.”

King nodded, “So, where is the next place?”

Perth’s smile grew as he told King the address. King puzzled over that huge smile until he entered the tiny bar where the next band was going to audition for them. The band members all greeted Perth by name, then King understood it. These guys were Perth’s friends. Perth was going to give them the job. For some reason, Perth had wasted a big chunk of the day listening to bands that he had no intention of hiring.

They were invited to sit down at a tiny table near the stage. A server arrived and asked them what they wanted to drink. Perth ordered a mixed drink and King ordered a bottle of water. The band joked around with Perth for a few moments but once the drinks arrived, the band began to perform.

King noticed that Perth seemed to know all the words to their songs, even songs that were not covers of other bands. Perth had apparently spent a lot of time with the band. King was glad to see that Perth had friends he was close to. It would make him feel less guilty when he cut Perth out of his life.

The band played for about forty-five minutes. Perth had a couple of drinks during their performance. King reminded Perth that they were on their last night of the tournament so they needed to keep their wits sharp. Perth reluctantly switched his third drink to a bottle of water.

After the last note was played, Perth clapped wildly. “You guys have definitely got the job! That performance was perfection!” He turned to King, “You agree, right?”

“Oh, of course,” King mumbled, knowing that Perth was only pretending to consult him. Privately, King thought that this band, although really good, was not up to the standard that the first two bands had set. It felt so odd to realize that Perth was deliberately trying to con him. Odd and unpleasant. He felt almost the same as when he, as a child, had turned over large rocks to watch the weird insects scurry and slither away once they were exposed to sunlight. He shuddered at the thought.

The guys in the band tried to get Perth to join them for a drink. He refused by saying with a sly grin, “Sorry guys, my…uh…partner here wants me to stay sober. Big night ahead.”

King flushed with a combination of embarrassment and rage. He knew that Perth was trying to imply that they were lovers. “Yes, it is the last night of the tournament. I don’t want to have to try to win all by myself.”

Perth checked the time on his phone, “Oops! Sorry everybody, it’s getting late so we have to be going. My dad’s office will send someone around with the final contract.” He walked out and King trailed along behind him.

Evening was quickly approaching and the sky was growing dark. King fiddled with the sunglasses and then decided to keep them on his shirt instead of up on the visor. He didn’t trust Perth not to get them. He started the car and as they pulled away from the curb, Perth was all smiles.

“We did it! It was amazing how we got through that list! There is nothing left to tend to now. If you don’t mind, just drop me at my house. I promised Mom I would be there for dinner tonight. I have missed a few too many since being back,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll be at your condo in time for the game though.”

King nodded.

“Hey! You’re quiet. What’s wrong? Another headache?” Perth turned in his seat to look at King better.

“No. I didn’t like what you said back there.”

“Back where? About taking me home? I could take a bus, I guess,” Perth said with a sigh.

“No! Not about that. What you said to those guys. You made it sound weird. Like we were a couple or something,” King said. He felt a bit of sweat appear on his forehead. He wasn’t a fan of confrontation.

“What did I say that was so wrong? I said that you, my partner, wanted me to stay sober tonight because it was a big night. I don’t get it,” Perth said with a frown. Then he smiled, “I think you might just be a bit oversensitive—but that’s okay. You’re probably tired. I know I am! What a day this has been!”

King ground his back teeth together but kept quiet. In just a few more blocks, they would be at Perth’s house. He would drop him off and then have a break for a bit.

Perth was rambling on about the places they had been and what they had accomplished. King tuned him out. He lived through it and didn’t feel the need to re-hash it. Those last few blocks felt like it took an eternity to drive, but they finally made it.

King pulled over to the curb in front of the house. Perth started to get out, reiterating that he would be at the condo before the start of the game. Suddenly Perth cried out, “Oh no! I dropped it” and began searching the floorboard of his seat. King put the car into park and leaned over to look. “What is it? What did you drop?”

Perth laughed and snatched Ram’s sunglasses from King’s neckline. He slammed the door and took off running towards the house, with the sunglasses clutched in his hand. “Since you love these sunglasses so much, come and get them,” he called over his shoulder.

In a rage, King turned off the car, pocketed the keys, and then went running as fast as he could after Perth. He was determined to get back those sunglasses, even if he had to fight to do it!

Perth paused on the porch, with his hand on the doorknob. In his other hand he waved the sunglasses. He was slightly out of breath, but still able to laugh. “Here they are!” he challenged as he waved them in King’s direction.

King charged up to the porch, teeth clenched, ready to do battle. Perth laughingly surrendered the sunglasses to King. “You are a fast runner!” he said.

King looked down at the sunglasses that he now had in his hand. He was confused. He didn’t understand what Perth was trying to prove by taking them. Then Perth pulled the door to the house open, and pushed King inside.

The woman from Ram’s pictures, the one that King had correctly guessed as his mother when he saw the picture, was standing in the foyer. She was wearing an apron and her hands were clasped together. She gave them a bright smile as they entered. King wanted to turn around and leave, but Perth pushed his back, propelling him forward.

“I saw you two running up to the house. No need to rush, you aren’t late; I’ve just now finished cooking our special dinner. Perth, you should introduce us,” she urged.

After Perth had made the introductions, his mother turned and called, “Ruj, our guest has arrived!”

Perth turned to King, “She’s just calling my brother,” he explained. She had spoken Thai when meeting King but had used English to call Ruj.

King nodded, “I know. I speak English.”

Perth took a step back in surprise, “I didn’t know that!”

King shrugged, “Why would you?”

“You never said…” he started, and then his mother interrupted.

“Are you fluent in English?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She sighed in relief and smiled, “The boys and I speak English in the house. My husband does often, too. It makes it easier on me. Would you be comfortable if we do tonight?” She took his arm and led him into the dining room as she spoke.

He glanced at the table and saw there were four places set. Assuming that the father was ‘out of town’ again, and knowing that Ram wasn’t home, King quickly understood that he was supposed to be a dinner guest. “That would be fine,” he answered.

“If you find that you don’t understand something, you can ask for help. I don’t mind at all,” she said kindly. Looking into her eyes, King could see that she definitely would understand. He imagined there had been many times she didn’t understand what was being said when she first came to Thailand. He gave her a smile and a slight nod.

She turned towards the stairs and called, “Ruj? Where is that boy? Ru…oh, there you are!”

He bounded into the room and stopped suddenly. His face showed signs of recognition for a split second, before he got control over his face. He came up to King and said, “It is an honor to welcome you as a special guest of my brother…P’Perth?”

Perth laughed, “It’s okay, we are speaking English tonight. It seems P’King here is fluent. I didn’t know. Anyway, P’King, this is my younger brother Ruj…who needs a bit of practice in Thai apparently. You ended your nice little speech as if it were a question!”

“Perth, please make your guest comfortable. Ruj will help me bring in the food,” Mrs. Vera said, and she and Ruj went into the kitchen.

“What is going on?” King hissed under his breath to Perth.

“Isn’t it obvious? We are about to have dinner,” Perth answered with a smirk.

“She was expecting me for dinner!” King whispered.

“Of course! I wouldn’t bring company to dinner unannounced! That would be rude.” Perth laughed at the anger on King’s face. “And here right next to me is your place,” he said in a normal voice.

King saw that Mrs. Vera and Ruj had reappeared in the doorway, loaded down with bowls of food. King sighed and took his seat at the table.

Right before the others took their seats, Perth suggested they take a picture. Since King was already seated, Perth arranged everyone to station themselves around him. King fiddled with the sunglasses that he still had in his hand. He thought it would be rude to put them on his shirt at the dinner table, so he laid them down next to his plate, and partially covered them with his hand. He looked up in time for Perth to get the picture. Perth examined it and smiled. “It’s perfect!” he proclaimed. “Even you, Ruj! You didn’t make a funny face this time!”

Once the others had taken their seats, Mrs. Vera indicated the two empty seats and explained that her husband was out of town on business and her eldest son was busy with his studies and couldn’t join them. There was a momentary twinge of pain on her face when she said it. King felt horrible for her, as he did for Ram. Noticing that Ram’s empty chair was next to Perth’s, King had a fleeting thought that he was surprised that Perth hadn’t tried to take Ram’s place at the table. He replaced his hand back on the sunglasses.

“Your name is very interesting,” Mrs. Vera said. “I’m sure you know that a king is the highest title of royalty in English. What does it mean in Thai?”

King grinned at her. “It means my parents took part of one of my sister’s name and a part of the other sister’s name and mashed it together and it came out ‘King’. My mother likes to tease me and say that she had wanted to name me ‘little buffalo’ but my father wouldn’t let her.”

Mrs. Vera held her napkin in front of her mouth and laughed into it. “I am glad your father put his foot down!” she exclaimed.

King nodded with a grin. He suddenly became very aware of how much Ram looked like her. Not just physical features, because Perth shared those, but a warmth and depth to her eyes that only Ram had.

“I’d like to tell you the story of my boys’ names, okay?” she asked.

King nodded happily. Everyone has stories behind their names, and people often liked to tell the tales.

“I met and married my husband when he was an exchange student in my country. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that one day he would be called back to his home, but looking back now, I know that I loved him so much, I would have traveled to the ends of the earth to be with him.” She paused to take a drink and King felt a lump forming in his stomach. He hated seeing the adoration on her face for a man who was sneaking around behind her back with a young neighbor. He understood even more clearly why Ram had had to escape this house.

“It wasn’t long after our marriage that I found out that we were expecting. And not just one baby, but two!” She smiled at Perth. “Almost immediately after that, my husband’s father became ill. For a while we thought he would rally and be able to assume control of the company, but that was not to be. We had to move here so that my husband could take over. I was pretty far along in my pregnancy by this time. I was so afraid when we arrived—I didn’t speak a word of Thai! Most of my time was spent with my dear father-in-law. He spoke some English and he taught me some Thai. He helped me to feel better about the move. But after the twins were born, I was hit with horrible homesickness.” She gave a small shrug, “I was young, and I missed my home. My husband told me that I could name the boys whatever I wanted, as long as their names were Thai. A nice, motherly nurse helped me pick their names.” She grinned and her two sons shared her smile. Obviously they had heard this story before. “She told me to name them ‘Ram’ and ‘Perth’ and whenever I got homesick, I was to look at them and know that they were now my ‘Beautiful Home’. You see, Ram means beautiful, and I came from a city named Perth in Australia.”

“Oh! That’s such a nice story!” King exclaimed. He had always wondered why Ram had been given a name that meant ‘beautiful’.

She nodded. “And as soon as my father-in-law heard their names, he understood the meaning. He adored the babies and we had hope that he would recover from his illness. Sadly, he passed right before our youngest was born.” She turned and smiled at Ruj, “And so we gave him his grandfather’s name. We were hopeful that he would inherit some of his grandfather’s traits. And he has! He is as kind and as empathic as his grandfather was. Ram inherited his deep, quiet nature, and Perth has inherited his quick humor. So I still have him around me, even though he is gone.” She sighed and then gave a small laugh, “I’m sorry! I have monopolized the conversation! So tell me, how did the two of you meet?”

King felt his mind freeze. He had no idea how to answer that question without mentioning Ram. “We met through a mutual friend,” Perth said easily. “And we just clicked. That’s why we have been so good at this tournament.” He turned to King with a smile. “I was going to wait until later, but I think I’ll tell you now. I took your advice and bought the HR/492! I hooked it up this morning and gave it a trial run on a few games. Tonight we can play here instead of at your place!”

King felt his face stretch into what he hoped resembled a smile. “Great!” he said with fake enthusiasm. He had hoped that he would be able to leave after dinner. Now, since Perth had announced that in front of his family, he felt stuck.

For the rest of the meal, Perth kept them all entertained with stories about their day, as they went all over town, throwing this party together at the last moment. King was surprised when he found himself laughing over the story. He had lived it and hadn’t found anything funny while it was happening, but Perth colored and shaded the story with just the right amount of humor that it sounded hilarious.

When dinner was officially over, Mrs. Vera stood up, “Perth, I would like for you and Ruj to clear the table, please. I will take our guest to the family room.” She turned to King, “I would like to show you the gift that my father-in-law presented to me to welcome me to Thailand.”

King accompanied her down the hall. She opened up a set of double doors and as soon as King looked into the room, he could guess what the gift was that she had received. He smiled at her as she walked to the first bookcase. “I majored in English Literature in college—and that was basically because if someone was looking for me, they could always find me behind a book. When my father-in-law heard that we were coming, he sent his staff out on the search for books! I came to my home and it was filled with all the stories I loved so well. Only one of my sons inherited my love of literature though.”

King turned his head to the direction of the dining room, thinking it was probably Ruj. Perth didn’t seem the type to sit still long enough to read an entire book. She laughed when she saw his head turn, “No, neither one of them. It is my eldest, Ram. I won’t say he has the same passion as I do, but there is more than a flicker of interest there.”

King looked around the room quickly and saw different areas dedicated to each of the sons. Ruj had what look like projects and ribbons from Science, Perth had handbills and photographs of him in costume performing on different stages, but Ram’s held the most items. Trophies and medals he had received for boxing. There were pictures of him in his boxing uniform. King quickly noticed that in one of the pictures, he didn’t have any tattoos yet. He looked very young but very fierce in the pose. King looked away swiftly and walked over to the bookshelf nearest him to admire Mrs. Vera’s books. “This was truly an amazing gift he gave you.”

“Yes, it was!” she smiled broadly and then turned to examine the books.

King noticed that the books had been arranged in alphabetical order by author name. He ran his finger across the spines and read the names he recognized as being considered the best of the English master’s. Suddenly his finger stuttered onto a name. He frowned as he sounded it out in his mind.

Mrs. Vera was next to him and she giggled. “You read English as well as speak it, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the book though.

“Then you understand his mistake. Bless his kind heart, I never told him. Up until now, only Ram and I knew. That’s Ram's favorite book, by the way.”

“I’m sorry…I’m not sure I understand what you are talking about.”

“Oh, I thought you had since you were drawn to it. It doesn’t really matter. But I will share the joke with you. You see, that isn’t actually a book from English literature, it has just been translated into English. Dostoevsky, the author, was Russian, not English.” She smiled.

King nodded with a smile, “I understand how he could have made that mistake. I’m glad you never told him!” He looked back at the book and studied it closely.

“Mum, everything is cleaned up now,” Ruj said as he entered the room. He turned to King, “Perth is getting the game controllers and will be down in a minute. For some reason, he thought he had to hide them from me.”

Mrs. Vera laughed, “He knew you would have jumped on that game as soon as his back was turned! Well, if you two will excuse me, I will go make some coffee to drink with our dessert.”

As soon as she was out of earshot, Ruj leaned forward and spoke quietly to King. “I wasn’t surprised to find you here as a special guest. I figured one day you would be, but I thought you would be Ram’s guest, not Perth’s! How did that happen?”

“You heard what Perth said…we met through a mutual friend…”

“Yeah, I heard. I don’t think you would be friends with the same type of people as Perth is though.” He sighed, “I miss Ram and the dogs. I usually take care of them for Ram when he is gone. It’s lonesome here now. Do you think they are all okay?” His eyes began to pierce King’s.

“Uh…Ram? And his dogs? I’m not sure what you are talking about,” King hedged around Ruj’s question.

“Yeah, somehow you met Perth through Ram. I’m not stupid. I’m not asking where he is, I just want to know if he is okay—and if he is mad at me about his razor. He caught me messing with it the day before he left and he was mad. Do you think that is why…?” Ruj said, his face and shoulders were tense.

King shook his head, “I am sure that Ram is not still angry about his razor. I imagine he isn’t angry at all, in fact. I think it is more about college. The first year is very stressful—nothing like what you see in movies. It is non-stop work, worries, and stress. I would bet that he just wanted to go somewhere and be alone for a bit, that’s all.”

Ruj let out his breath and King could see his shoulders relaxing. “I believe you. If you happen to see him around somewhere, would you tell him I’m sorry?”

King smiled, “I will, if you will do me a favor.”

“Sure! What do I have to do?”

“Well, first—can you read English? I know you speak it…”

“Yeah, I can! Do you want me to read something for you?”

King thought about it for a second and then nodded, “But you have to read it in a very quiet voice and when I point to you, okay?” When Ruj agreed, King showed it to him. “Just these two words, nothing else, okay? And not a whisper, just very low and quiet.” Ruj nodded in understanding and King closed his eyes.

He pictured sitting across from Ram in their regular restaurant, at their regular table, and in their regular seats. King had just had his stitches removed (he imagined he could still feel traces of the sting from where they had been pulled out of his scalp), and had just met Perth a few hours before. By Ram’s demeanor, King was picking up that Ram was not fond of Perth. King asked him if he liked Perth and Ram had replied, “He’s my brother.” While King was pondering the answer, Ram picked up his juice glass and mumbled, “My…” King, still keeping his eyes closed, pointed to Ruj.

“Dostoevsky ‘Double’.” Ruj said quietly, and it blended perfectly to King’s memory of what Ram had said that day. King hadn’t understood at the time because Ram had said it so quietly and had said it in English.

King opened his eyes, “Thank you. And I will keep my part of the bargain if I run into Ram anywhere.”

Ruj grinned, “Come here, I want to show you something!”

He hustled King over to Ram’s trophy area. Ruj looked at the door and then turned back and spoke quickly and quietly, “No one ever mentions it, and I know they think I forgot, but I didn’t! I was young, but it was so shocking, so I remember it. Don’t tell Perth I told you this, but Ram’s first bout was against Perth. Everyone was excited about it because they are identical so people thought they would have the same skills. People didn’t bet on who they thought would win, but how many rounds it would last.” Ruj stopped and peeked at the door again. Seeing it was clear, he continued. “Ram was wearing red, Perth was wearing blue—that really sticks out in my mind for some reason. Probably because no one else could tell them apart. Isn’t that funny? Once you know them, it’s easy—anyway, the bell rang and they met in the center of the ring. They danced around, or whatever you call it, for a few seconds, and then WHAM! Ram threw a punch and Perth dropped like a rock! It was AMAZING!!!!! I was jumping up and down and screaming. I got into trouble. My parents thought I was making fun of Perth, but I wasn’t. I was cheering for Ram! He has always been so quiet, I had no idea he could do that! Perth quit boxing and started taking piano lessons. Ram won every fight he’s been in. He is in the pros now, did you know that?”

King smiled at the sparkle of pride in the boy’s eyes, “I did know that. A friend told me. Not the friend you think though. He wouldn’t, would he? He doesn’t brag.”

Ruj shook his head, “No, he never does. Man, I would if it was me!”

“Why are you two hanging around over there?” Perth asked. His voice was a bit cross as he walked over to his game player and plugged in the controllers. “That boxing stuff is gross. I wouldn’t think it would interest either of you.”

“I have dessert ready,” Mrs. Vera called from the doorway.

While they had their dessert and coffee, Perth kept them all entertained with hilarious stories of his adventures in the UK. King noticed that Perth carefully skirted any mention of his throwing of the whiskey bottle through a glass window, with the intention of hitting a girl inside the building. The incident that had been the reason for his return to Thailand.

Eventually Perth checked the time and announced it was nearly time for the game to begin. Ruj asked if he could watch them but was sharply refused permission from Perth. King frowned at how harsh Perth spoke to Ruj, but Ruj seemed used to it. That bothered King even more.

King requested a bathroom break before the start of the game. Perth showed him the way to the restroom, pointing out the doors to each one’s bedroom along the way. When Perth showed him Ram’s door, guilt that King had suppressed came back. He knew that once Ram learned that King had spent the evening with Ram’s family, it would make him feel bad. As he washed his hands, he looked into the mirror and met his own eyes in the reflection. He had to look away.

Once they were back in the family room, and the game got started, King was able to lose himself for a while. This last stage of the game was chaotic. It was as if all the rest of the game leading up to this level had only been a warm-up for the real thing, and this level was the real thing.

They had successfully battled multiple hordes of zombies, as they slowly made their way forward. Once they finally cleared the area, they were met with an army of the mutant humans. “Oh come on!” Perth barked. “We surely have to be close to the gate by now!”

“Look at where the mutants are more closely together. See the blur in the camouflage behind them? I think the gate is behind that.”

Perth shot him a quick smile. “Great catch! Let’s do this!”

They fought together, sometimes side-by-side and sometimes back-to-back, firing in a circle, against the mutants. They made it to the blurry spot in the camouflage, but nothing happened. No gate appeared, no help arrived.

“Open Sesame! Hocus-Pocus! Abracadabra!” Perth shouted at the screen. “What now?” he asked King.

“No idea! I thought this was it. Watch out! The mutants we killed are coming back as zombies!”

They backed up as much as they could, firing out at the zombies, when suddenly the gate opened. Hands pulled them inside while soldiers ran past them to finish the battle. “Welcome Warriors!” a character in full military dress approached them. “You have made it to the safe lands and have won the game!”

“YES!!!!” Perth yelled, jumping to his feet and pulling King up with him. “We did it!” He threw his arms around King. King squirmed away quickly and laughingly knuckle bumped him.

The scoreboard appeared and they could see that a lot of the teams had Xs next to their names. Those were the ones who hadn’t made it to the end. A few of the teams, theirs included, gained a check mark. Some teams were still playing so this wasn’t the final scoreboard. “I think we have a good shot at winning this. It would have been better if I hadn’t gotten wounded that time when Ram distracted me,” Perth complained.

“How did he distract you? He was just sitting in the same room and reading,” King argued.

Perth sighed and shook his head, “I don’t like other people in the room when I play.”

King frowned at that. He distinctly remembered Perth telling him the story about his friend Stewart who didn’t like to play horror games but he liked to watch his friends play. Perth said he liked to tease him and call him a voyeur. This didn’t add up to what he just said.

“We have to go out and celebrate!” Perth said.

“No, I can’t. It’s late and I am tired. I’m just going to go home now.”

“Ugh! Seriously! How old are you? Fine, whatever. You can give me a ride to the bar where my friends’ band is playing. I will be in time for their last set,” Perth said.

King bristled a bit at how Perth worded that, but agreed. They headed out of the house and walked toward the car. The closer they got nearer it, the more irritation King felt. He remembered how Perth had snatched Ram’s sunglasses from his shirt earlier and tricked him into having dinner. He felt his back teeth grinding again.

Perth was in extremely high spirits and talked non-stop on the way to the bar. He was on his phone and read posts from the game chat out loud. It seemed that everyone was in the same joyous mood. Everyone but King. He was happy that they were successful in the game and thought the game was an excellent one, but other than that, he didn’t much care about anything. He just wanted to drop Perth off as quickly as possible and to get back to the condo.

When King pulled over to the curb to let Perth out at the bar, Perth basically begged King to join him, ‘just one drink!’, but King refused. Perth took so long to give up and get out of the car that King envisioned shoving him out. But of course he didn’t. He maintained his polite refusals until a car stopped behind them, waiting to drop someone off. Perth reluctantly got out of the car and King quickly pulled away.

On the way back to the condo, King realized that his hands were shaking and he was grinding his back teeth together. If not for the party the next day, he would have been finished with Perth. He felt a wave of panic hit him in his chest as he thought it was possible that Perth would come up with something else to keep King hostage—because that was how it was beginning to feel.

He pulled into his parking spot at the condo and turned off the car. He took Ram’s sunglasses from his shirt and hung them back on the sun visor were Ram kept them. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He knew it was time and he was terrified. It was time to talk to Ram. He needed to apologize for having dinner with his family and explain how Perth had tricked him into it. He needed help to get Perth to back off him, but first and most importantly…he needed to apologize for what he had done to Ram in the tent. His heart clenched up at the thought but he pushed it away. He knew he should have done it right away. It wasn’t going to get easier by waiting.

He got out of the car and walked into the building. In the elevator, he checked the time on his phone. It was so late. Ram was probably already asleep. King raked his hair back and decided that this was important enough to wake him.

He squared his shoulders and unlocked the door to his condo and stopped short. The light in the entry wasn’t on. That was odd. He reached his hand in and flipped on the switch. As the light came on, King felt even more confused. He had assumed that maybe the bulb had blown, but it worked fine.

He looked at the floor and saw that Ram’s shoes were not there. It was silent inside the condo. No dogs had barked at his entry. King felt the hairs stand up on his arms. Something was wrong. He couldn’t imagine Ram taking the dogs out for a walk at this time of night, but even if he had, he would have left the entryway light on.

He kicked off his shoes and crept to the end of the entryway. He snaked his hand around the edge of the wall until he located the wall switch. He clicked it and light flooded the living room. There was nothing out of place; it looked exactly as it had when he left the condo that morning. He caught a glimpse of a note on the refrigerator and let out his breath in a whoosh of relief. He hurried into the kitchen and flipped on the light so he could read the note.

The anxiety returned, much larger this time as he realized that the note on the refrigerator was the one he himself had left for Ram. He hurried out of the kitchen, headed for the bedroom, turning on all the lights along the way.

His heart was almost jumping out of his chest when he threw open the bedroom door and quickly turned on the overhead light. When he saw that Ram wasn’t there, he didn’t know if he should be relieved or more worried.

He quickly scanned the room and noticed that Ram’s textbooks weren’t on the dresser where he always kept them neatly stacked. He looked around for the backpack that Ram used to keep his clothes in. “Because you never gave him a drawer for his clothes. Why didn’t you? You should have!” He scolded himself as he looked for the bag. He couldn’t see it on the floor anywhere, nor on top of any of the surfaces. He dropped to his hands and knees and searched under the bed. The bag was not there.

King backed out from under the bed and sat down on the floor to think. “He must have decided to go to a friend’s house to spend the night. He took the dogs with him, so he could tend to them. But why would he take his textbooks?” he whispered to himself. King puzzled on it for a while and then decided that maybe there was some kind of school project due and Ram and his friend were going to work on it together. He would need his textbooks for that. He probably just forgot to leave a note. King looked toward the closet.

While he hadn’t given Ram a drawer to use, he had given him closet space to hang his school uniforms. He got up and walked over to the closet and stood looking at the door. He wiped the sweat off his palm and reached for the knob. He knew he was being ridiculous. The uniforms would be in there. He wouldn’t need those for a project or to spend the night with a friend. He took a deep breath and opened the closet door. Ram’s hangers were empty.

He searched the floor of the closet and then through everything of his that was hanging there—to make sure that Ram’s uniforms hadn’t gotten dropped or mixed in with his clothes. He reached the end of the clothes on the pole and then started back. Ram’s uniforms were not there.

He shut the closet door and hurried over to the bedside table where Ram always emptied his pockets. The tabletop was clean.

He quickly looked around the room again, thinking that maybe he had just overlooked all of Ram’s belongings somehow. He was searching the top of the dresser when he spotted something he had missed before. He slowly took a couple of steps away from it. The back of his legs made contact with the bed and he sat down on the mattress with a plop.

He stared at it for a moment and then bent forward and extended his arm. He picked it up and pulled it to him. He looked down at it. He sighed and gave a small nod of acceptance. Ram had moved out and taken all of his things. Everything he wanted to keep. “I guess you aren’t as important to him as we thought,” he whispered to the Venus flytrap plant that Ram had left behind.


	10. Chapter 10

King sat on the bed staring at the little plant for a long time. He finally managed to get up and walk back into the living room. He brought the plant back with him and sat it on the coffee table. He picked up his phone, opened the LINE app, and selected Ram’s name. He quickly typed, _“Where are you?”_ in the text box. His thumb was hovering over the ‘Send’ key when he stopped himself. He hit the backspace key instead and deleted the message. He shook his head at himself. He couldn’t send Ram a message like that! It sounded like something a parent would send, not a friend. And besides, they had stopped sending messages to each other and instead left notes on the refrigerator after Ram moved in. King shook his head at that, no…when Ram came to stay at the condo. He hadn’t ever moved in, so logically, he hadn’t moved out. He had just moved on to somewhere else.

King scrolled back through their messages. The last one he had gotten from Ram was the reminder that King had an appointment to get his stitches removed. King raked back his hair and felt for the spot where they had been. It was still slightly tender to the touch, but he knew in a few more days even that would be gone. He hurriedly scrolled past the previous message with his heart pounding. He didn’t look at it but those words had been burned into his retinas. _“I was not drunk last night”_. King scrolled on and looked at GIFS, memes, and jokes that he had sent Ram in the past. He stopped suddenly on a picture that Ram had sent to him once. It was a field of wildflowers. No message before or after it. Just the picture. Ram must have passed by this field, somewhere, on his way to or from somewhere, and had taken a picture of the flowers. King remembered how he felt when he opened the message and saw the picture. A funny, fluttery feeling had engulfed him for a few moments, and subsequently had every time he had gone back to look at it. He knew that Ram had thought of him and had wanted to share it with him.

He also hurriedly scrolled past the messages about Ram finding out that King had lied to Kumfah about Ram’s voice. He glanced at the Venus flytrap sitting in front of him on the table and remembered when he gave it to Ram as an apology gift. He felt his chest tightening and bit down hard on his bottom lip. He looked back at the screen and continued scrolling.

Soon he reached the very first message he had ever sent to Ram, _“Look to your right”_. He sighed. He had been brave enough to send that out to a stranger, but not brave enough to send a message to a friend. He shook his head and shut off his phone.

He looked back at the Venus flytrap and then spoke to it, “This just feels weird. Like a puzzle with missing pieces. Where could he have gone? Not to his parents’ house because I was there and he didn’t show up. Not to his dorm—I don’t see how he could have smuggled three dogs in there. So where? A friend’s house—maybe. Probably Duen’s, but still…why?” He shook his head, “And why wouldn’t he leave a note? He is polite and he wouldn’t deliberately be rude.” He looked into the kitchen and saw his own note was still on the refrigerator. He got up and walked over to it. He took it down and looked at the back of the page, in case Ram had used the back side and forgot to flip it over. However, the back of the page was blank. King wadded it up and headed towards the trashcan. He stopped suddenly as a thought struck him. Ram could have written a note and accidentally thrown it away and stuck King’s back on the refrigerator by mistake.

He pushed the lever with his foot and opened the garbage can. He blinked in confusion at what he saw in there. He reached in and pulled them out to examine them better. Two take-out, breakfast containers. One was empty; one was full. It was still sealed. King examined it closer and saw that it held an omelet and rice. The same breakfast order that Ram had been buying for King every morning. The order slip was still on it. King checked the date/time stamp and saw that it had been purchased early that morning.

King sat them aside on the floor and then dug through the rest of the garbage, looking for an accidentally trashed note. He didn’t find one. He looked back at the containers on the floor and his confusion grew.

His hands felt disgusting after digging in the trash. He walked over to the sink with the intention of washing them, when he noticed that the sink had dried splashes of something, all over the sides of it. With a frown, King opened up the drawer where he kept extra paper napkins from take-out restaurants. He pulled out one and then used it to rub at some of the spots. He looked at the napkin and saw that the spots were dark brown. He had an idea what it was, but he carefully sniffed at it to be sure. He nodded, it was coffee. He pitched the napkin into the trash and scrubbed his hands in the sink. He then rinsed away the rest of the coffee splatters from the sides of the sink.

He checked the dishwasher and saw that Ram had rinsed his cup and put it in there, just like he always did. He checked the coffee pot and saw a tiny bit of coffee at the bottom of the pot. He rinsed it out and put it back. He opened the basket at the top and found the coffee filter and wet coffee grounds still in it. His frown came back, deeper than before. None of this made any sense.

He dumped the coffee mess into the trash and rinsed the basket before replacing it. Then he sat down next to the breakfast containers. He tried to make it all make sense, but it didn’t. Why would Ram make coffee and buy breakfast, just to throw King’s into the trash and dump the coffee out before King could have any? And Ram was very tidy. Even if he had dumped out the coffee for some reason, why would he leave a splattered mess in the sink and coffee grounds in the coffeemaker? He took the time to rinse his cup when he was done and put it into the dishwasher, so it couldn’t have had anything to do with running out of time before class. Unless, maybe Phu had been in the condo and he did it…but still, why throw out a breakfast for King that Ram had purchased for him?

Also, the ticket was for two breakfast orders. So Phu probably wasn’t with Ram when he bought them, and if he were hungry, he might have eaten King’s breakfast but no reason to throw it away. King stared at the containers for a long time, before finally dropping them back into the trash. No answers had come to him while staring at them so there was no reason to keep trying.

He walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch. He picked up the Venus flytrap and talked to it again. “So, does any of this make sense to you? It feel like he was angry or something. He must have been fine when he bought the breakfast and made the coffee, but then…got angry or something afterwards and got rid of it. But if that was the case, why was he angry? I was sleeping so I know I didn’t do anything. And he told me to sleep in so he couldn’t have been mad about it.” He shook his head, “No, he still wouldn’t do that. It’s not in his nature to be vindictive. He is more the ‘silent treatment’ kind of mad than a 'destructive' kind of mad person.” He gave a small laugh, “Okay, you’re right, Ram is always silent, but it’s a different kind of silence when he is mad.” He grew silent himself as another thought struck him. “Did he leave the spare key? I gave it to him the first night he arrived here. But I don’t remember seeing it anywhere.” He put the plant back down on the table and began to search the condo for the key.

Ram had been beside him when he retrieved it from a hook that was hidden in the back of a cupboard. Logically, Ram would have chosen that as the place to return it. King search the cupboard thoroughly and the key was not there. Then he ran around and searched every flat surface, every table, every plant shelf, every countertop—any place where someone might lay down a key. It wasn’t anywhere. To be absolutely certain, King ran back around and checked again. Finally, he sat back down on the couch. “He didn’t leave the key here,” he told the Venus flytrap. “I imagine that means he intends to give it back to me in person. That does seem more like him than to just leave it lying around somewhere.” King sighed in frustration, “So, do you have any theories about any of this, because I am still confused.” King stared at the plant; the plant did not answer.

He leaned back on the couch but was filled with nervous energy and couldn’t relax. He got up, “Well, even though you didn’t answer me, plants are always the answer.” He went into the kitchen and gathered up all his plant supplies. He started in the entry hall and tended to each plant in turn. He tried to push all of his confusion to the back of his mind and just concentrate on the tending to the plants. One thought kept coming to the front of his mind, and it was about the dogs barking. It made no sense and when he focused his attention on it, the thought darted away. The thoughts returned once he got busy again. Eventually he reached the plants located near the dogs’ room. He stopped what he was doing and went to the dogs’ door. He knew they weren’t there because they hadn’t barked when he came into the condo. They always barked when someone came in. He felt ridiculous, but he reached out and knocked on the door. Instead of a loud chorus of barking in response to the knocking, King heard nothing but silence. He frowned. He knew that there wouldn’t be, but something still kept bothering him about the lack of barking. He opened the door slightly, preparing to yank it closed if there was any response from inside, but there wasn’t. He gulped a few times and shakily thrust his hand in through the crack and flipped on the light inside the room. After a few moments, he cracked the door open further and, gathering all of his courage, peeked into the room. There were no dogs inside, even their bowls were gone. He gave a brief nod, it was just as he had expected, so now maybe the incessant thoughts about the dogs not barking would go away.

He went back to work on the plants, and each time the thought, “The dogs didn’t bark”, popped back into his mind; he used his logic on it. They didn’t bark because Ram was gone when he got home and had taken the dogs with him when he left. It didn’t help diminish the thought though.

Finally he finished with the plants and put away all the supplies. He headed back to the couch, “Okay, so what do you think it means that the dogs didn’t bark?” he asked the Venus flytrap. “I can’t shake this thought so it has to mean something.” He thought about it for a bit before speaking to the plant again, “The dogs were gone when I got home and I knew immediately they weren’t here because they didn’t bark. I saw that Ram’s shoes were gone so I knew he had taken them. At first I thought he was walking them, even though it was pretty late. As long as he has been here, he never took them out that late before, so I knew something was different. Then I saw that all of his stuff was gone.” He shook his head, “There is something though my mind is trying to tell me.”

He thought back to seeing Ram taking the dogs for their last walk the night before and then bringing them back in. They didn’t bark then because he was with them. And in the morning while he was sleeping, he didn’t hear them because they never barked when Ram went to their door to pick them up for walks or when he put them back in the room after the walks. King had left the condo before Ram got back from class so he hadn’t heard them barking when Ram came in because King wasn’t there. He had been dragged out of the condo by Perth who had way too much energy that early in the day. King had even known that before he reached the door to let him in because of Perth’s non-stop knocking that had awakened him.

He felt something odd when he had that thought. Something about Perth waking him up. Then it hit him. That was it! The dogs hadn’t barked even though Perth had beat on the door!!! That could only mean that Ram had taken the dogs with him when he left in the morning before school.

King went back over the events from the night before to determine what it was that could have made Ram decide to leave. King picked Ram up after school, they came home and ordered in food, King helped Ram with his homework, Perth came over to play the game, Ram read his book while they played, Perth left, Ram went to bed, and King played his favorite video game before he went to bed. Nothing. There was nothing that he could come up with that would have caused Ram to become angry. He shrugged, maybe he wasn’t angry. Maybe he just decided to go somewhere else and stay for a bit. But that still didn’t explain why he put King’s breakfast in the trash and dumped out the coffee.

King suddenly noticed that he felt tired. He checked the clock on his phone and saw that it was very late. It was no wonder he was tired. He got out his bedding and made up the couch (just in case Ram did decide to come back he could have the bed, King thought) and went to take a shower. When he was done he came back to the couch and set the alarm on his phone. Perth had said that they needed to get to the venue early to set everything up. There was no way that King was going to jump out of bed and face Perth’s crazy energy as soon as his eyes were opened like he had that morning. He sighed with frustration but then felt a bit better when he realized as soon as the party was over, his feeling of some weird obligation to help Perth with all of this tournament stuff would be truly over.

He turned off the light and struggled to find a comfortable spot to sleep. He tossed and turned for a bit. And then flipped his pillow and punched it a few times. He ended up staring at his ceiling that was slightly lit up from the moon spilling through his window. He turned things over in his mind, again and again, and although he was tired, his mind would not shut down to allow him to sleep. He reached over and grabbed his phone from the coffee table and checked the time. He had been trying to sleep for over an hour.

He opened up his FaceBook app to see what his friends had been up to. As soon as he did, he wished he hadn’t. All of them, except for Mek, Boss, and King, had gone out together, according to a picture that Ting had posted. He exited out of the app and checked to see if he had any missed calls or messages. He didn’t. Obviously, he hadn’t been invited. He imagined that Mek and Boss had declined going out so that they could save money to spend fixing up their new place.

He went back to FaceBook and watched their stories. It looked like all of them were drunk or close to it so the cameras weren’t very steady. It was no surprise that he found himself trying to catch glimpses of Ram. From what he could see, Ram seemed fine. Early in one of their stories, he could see Ram looking at something on his phone. Maybe a message or something. King frowned. Ram certainly wasn’t sending a message to him; that was one thing he was certain of. Later glimpses of Ram showed that he seemed to be in really good spirits. Big smiles. King huffed out angrily at that. And then stopped himself quickly. It was okay that Ram was happy and having fun. He deserved it. He had been having some problems at school and problems with his family stuff; he needed to relax a bit. It was just…King shook his head. Why hadn’t anyone ask him to come too? Of all of them, he would have thought Ram might have. Or even Bohn. Although Bohn was looking all dreamy-eyed and goofy over Duen sitting next to him. Maybe he didn’t even realize King wasn’t there.

He went back to Ting’s page and looked at the still picture she had posted. His eye happened to travel down to the comments and he was surprised to see his name being mentioned. He read a thread of a conversation by two girls he had never even heard of—he assumed they must be friends of Ting’s. The first girl said that King wasn’t there because he was ‘busy’, but it was okay because Ram had just given his blessing. The second girl was astonished and asked how the first girl knew that. Instead of explaining, the first girl merely said, “Go look at Perth’s pictures!”

King took her suggestion and went to Perth’s page. He was sickened by the sight of so many pictures of King that Perth had posted. King hadn’t been back to Perth’s page since the guys had told him about some pictures that Perth had posted days ago. Perth had added a lot to them.

The first one he came to, which was the last one Perth had posted, was of King, Perth, Ruj, and Mrs. Vera, crowded together by the dining table at the Vera house. The caption was, “Dinner with the family!”

There were others—King driving, with the caption, “My personal chauffeur”, King in the flower shop, bent down, petting the cat. The caption was, “I have never seen anything as gorgeous as this! And the cat is cute, too!” with a winking emoji. On and on went the pictures of King, all down Ram’s timeline. The one thing they had in common, aside from them all being of King, was that Ram had liked them. All of them.

King exited out of the app and shut off his phone. By the timing of the conversation between the two girls compared to the timing of the stories showing Ram at the bar, looking at his phone, King guessed that was when Ram had liked all of the pictures. It might not have happened then, but King felt like that was when Ram did it. And the big smiles in the stories after that were confusing.

King looked over at the Venus flytrap and asked, “Why would he react that way?”

His mind was in a whirl. He felt as if he were trapped in a weird surrealistic dream, where nothing made any sense.

He lay back down and tried to go to sleep, but his mind wouldn’t quiet down. He tossed and turned a bit more and then sat up. He reached for his phone. He remembered the guys talking about a poll that asked opinions on who King would end up with: Ram, Perth, both, or neither. He went to the page, intending to vote for “neither” so he could check out the percentages of each, but when he got there, he was surprised to find that the poll had been taken down and another one was in its place. This one still asked who King would end up with, but the answer choices were: Ram, Perth, or Beam. King was shocked. Beam? How did she get into the mix? How did anyone even know about her? Then he wondered if that was why she had sent him the message the day before. He hadn’t answered her at the time because he saw that he had received a message from the psychiatrist, which was a lot more important to him.

There were arguments on the thread under the poll. People were cheering on their pick, while others were there to prove that their pick was the one who had captured King’s heart. He really didn’t understand any of this. How did he become the object of such interest? Most of the names of the people on the threads were names he had never even heard before. And from what he gathered, Perth was the most popular choice. A few people were certain it was Beam since their date the other day—a date that people seemed certain happened, but King knew it hadn’t. He didn’t see anyone saying anything about Ram. Since the votes were anonymous, King clicked the Ram choice to see the votes. Over a thousand people had voted, with Perth getting 65% of the vote, Beam had 32%, and Ram had 3%.

King stared at the poll in utter confusion. He couldn’t understand why all of these people would bother with such a silly thing, especially people he had never met before. He imagined that the way he was feeling was similar to how Bohn felt when he found out that some people had been writing sexy fics about him and Duen.

As soon as he had that thought, he hurried over to the fiction section to check. Sure enough, there was a column of fiction stories about him. He cringed so hard it made him shudder. He saw a picture of the cover of one that was a manipulated picture of him and the twins. Rather, it was supposed to be the twins, but they had actually used two pictures of Perth.

He closed the app. He got up and paced around the condo. He couldn’t understand why so many people were interested in him and his nonexistent love life. No one had ever commented on him like this before. Especially not to the extent of writing fiction about him. He knew Kumfah would have such fun with all of this when she returned from her vacation. It wasn’t fun for him though.

He plopped back down on the couch, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. On a whim, he thought he might see if he could download that book that Mrs. Vera had said was Ram’s favorite. He thought that maybe if he read a bit, it might take his mind off all the confusion that was swirling around in his head and maybe he would be able to sleep.

He picked up his phone and entered ‘The Double, Dostoevsky’ in an Internet search. When the results displayed, he saw that the book was downloadable, plus he saw that there had been a modernized movie made of it a few years previous. He grabbed his laptop and downloaded the book and then rented the movie. He thought it might be fun to watch the movie first and then read the book, to compare them. He figured it must be a really good story since it was Ram’s favorite.

He lay down and got comfortable and then pushed the ‘Play’ button to start the movie. Twenty minutes into it, he was sitting up with the covers wrapped tightly around him like a cocoon. He found himself mumbling, “Oh no…no. This is bad.” Around forty-five minutes into the movie, he paused it and went into the kitchen to hit Perth’s liquor stash. He made himself a strong drink, and took it back with him into the living room. He reached for the ‘Play’ button but stopped before he pushed it. Instead he reached over and picked up the Venus flytrap. “Ram thinks he is the Original, Simon James, doesn’t he? Introverted, quiet, socially awkward. Oh man…and when his only friend called him ‘basically a non-person’, my stomach clinched up.” He put the plant back down and then took a big drink from his glass. “Ram thinks Perth is the Double, James Simon. Extrovert, charming, socially comfortable. And he looks identical to the Original. They seem like they are friends right now, but I feel like the Double is only pretending to be nice. I hope I am wrong.”

He had to pause the movie again a short time before the ending to fix himself another drink. “I was right. The Double, James Simon, was only pretending to be nice,” he told the Venus flytrap. “He found out things about the Original, Simon James, just so he could use the information to hurt him! He took everything Simon had and gained everything that Simon wanted. He even took pictures of himself in compromising situations and told people it was Simon! I hate this guy so much!” King shook his head angrily and then pushed the ‘Play’ button again.

Once the movie ended, King watched the credits rolling on the screen with a perplexed frown. “So…wait. Was Simon actually insane and just imagined James, or did James really exist?” he muttered. He turned to the Venus flytrap again, “It doesn’t matter though. I think Ram reads it for the obvious story of two people who are identical, not the underlying story of insanity.” He sighed. He was wound up and more awake than he had been earlier. “I’m going to read a chapter or so from the book. It should help to put me to sleep,” he told the plant. “I hope they just made the movie more dramatic than the book. Maybe the story isn’t as bleak in the book.”

He began to read. It was a small book—more like a novella instead of a novel, since it was only a bit over a hundred pages. In the book, the Original character’s name was Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin and the Double’s name was the same. They were often referred in the story as Golyadkin Sr. and Golyadkin Jr. King thought it was no wonder that the movie changed the characters names to Simon James and James Simon.

The sky was beginning to lighten with the approaching dawn when King finished the book. He shut down his laptop with a sigh. He picked up his pillow and the Venus flytrap and stumbled into the bedroom. He threw his pillow onto his side of the bed and sat the plant back on the dresser top where Ram had kept it. “The book was worse, if you can believe it,” he told the plant.

He pulled down the covers of the bed and crawled in it. He got in the bed on Ram’s side and pulled Ram’s pillow tight to him. It smelled like Ram. “His mother was wrong,” he called to the plant. “That book isn’t Ram’s favorite book; it is his worst nightmare.” He reached up and touched the place behind his own ear, where Ram had the dreamcatcher tattoo. He groaned, “That must be why he has that.”

He awakened to the sound of the alarm on his phone. He kept his eyes closed as he reached for it. After several moments of fumbling around without finding it, he opened his eyes. He realized that he had left his phone on the charger in the living room.

He got up and shambled like a zombie into the living room to shut it off. He hadn’t gotten much sleep and he toyed with the idea of setting it for a later time and going back to bed, but he remembered that Perth had said they needed to get to the venue early to help set things up. Perth hadn’t specified how early ‘early’ would be and King hated the idea of facing Perth as soon as he woke up, so he gave up the idea of going back to sleep.

He went into the kitchen and put on the coffee. He searched through his cabinets and found some instant noodles. It was an odd choice for breakfast, but at least he knew how to cook it. In the past, he would have just skipped breakfast altogether, but Ram had spoiled him.

He poured himself a cup of coffee as soon as it was finished brewing and dished up the noodles. He was disappointed in the coffee. He had made it too weak. The noodles were okay though—it was kind of hard to ruin instant noodles.

After he was finished eating, he rinsed his dishes and placed them in the dishwasher. He placed his coffee cup next to Ram’s and again, all the questions he had the night before came rushing back into his mind. He reached the same conclusion that he had then too—things didn’t make any sense. There were pieces missing.

He took a shower and got dressed for the day, and then he made the bed and went into the living room and folded up the covers he hadn’t used the night before. He put them in the closet. He tidied up a bit, but soon ran out of things to do. He sat down on the couch to wait for Perth to arrive, and stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out what had happened and why.

He hadn’t slept much at all the night before and he must have dozed off because the next thing he was aware of was someone pounding on his door. He got up with a sigh and let Perth in.

“Seriously! Do you sleep ALL the time?” Perth grumbled as he entered. He examined King from head to toe. “No, that outfit won’t do. Luckily, I just happen to have the perfect shirt for you!” He opened a bag that was slung over his shoulder and pulled out a white button down shirt.

King took it in his hands and examined it. It was made from silk and had tiny lines of silver running down the length. King looked at Perth and noticed that he had on the exact shirt, except in black. “It looks a lot like yours,” he commented dryly.

“Well…yeah. We are the hosts; we should look like it!” Perth defended. “Look, I know this isn’t your style, but we really should look especially nice tonight. I had to guess your size, but I am sure it will fit. And besides…”

“Okay.” King agreed.

“What? You aren’t going to argue with me?” Perth asked in amazement.

“No. I don’t care. A shirt is a shirt. I’ll just go and put it on so we can leave.”

King was careful to lock the bathroom door behind him before he changed shirts. Once he had it buttoned, he looked at himself in the mirror. It was a nice shirt but definitely nothing he would have chosen for himself. It was a snug fit, especially across the shoulders, but he had checked the tag and it was his size. He realized that it was supposed to fit like this. With a sigh of resignation, King went back out into the living room to join Perth.

“Wow!” Perth exclaimed. “Wow, oh wow! Did you see yourself in this?” He slowly walked around King, viewing every inch of him. “Wait…it just needs one thing,” he said and he unbuttoned another button on the shirt.

King grabbed at the shirt opening, about to object, and then decided it wasn’t even worth the argument. He dropped his hand with a shrug. “Are you ready to go then?”

Perth studied King’s face with a frown, “Are you feeling alright? You don’t seem to be yourself.”

“I’m fine. Let’s just go, okay?”

As soon as they entered the car, King took Ram’s sunglasses down from the visor and put them on. King wondered if Ram had forgotten about them or had left them behind on purpose. King thought it would be a bad joke on him if after trying so hard to protect them from Perth all week that Ram didn’t care anything about them.

As they drove to the venue to begin setting up everything, Perth kept up a non-stop stream of gibberish. He was certain that the party would be the party of the century and that people would compare every party in the future to it. King tuned him out and just threw him a random statement whenever Perth paused. King did it by simply rephrasing the last sentence that Perth said. It pleased Perth and King didn’t have to work hard on it.

After a time, King became aware that Perth was silent and was staring at him.

“What?” King asked.

“Who’s James?” Perth asked with suspicion, his eyebrows drawn together severely in the middle of his brow.

King frowned in bewilderment. “James? I don’t know anybody named James.”

“That’s funny, because you just called _me_ James!”

King shrugged, “Sorry, no idea.” But he knew. He hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but he had been thinking how much like the fictional character James Simon from ‘The Double’ was to Perth.

Perth shook his head, “It doesn’t matter. I’m sure that James is just some side piece of yours who doesn’t mean much to you. Anyway, as I was saying…”

King frowned hard at the ‘side piece’ remark. As if he was the type to sleep around with anyone with a pulse. He took a breath, preparing to do battle, and then just exhaled it out. It didn’t matter what Perth thought. Later in the evening, the party would be over and so would be his forced association with Perth. The only good thing about Ram leaving the condo was that, after this party was over, Perth would have no reason to come around there ever again.

Before they had even gotten parked at the venue, Perth jumped out of the car and began yelling at some workers who were delivering things for the party. King couldn’t tell what it was and the truck was unmarked. He put the car into park and turned off the engine. He knew he couldn’t keep Ram’s sunglasses with him; they would slide right off the slick shirt, so he locked them in the glove compartment and then locked the car doors. After Perth had snatched them off his shirt the night before, King thought he probably should have kept them locked in there the entire time. He just hadn’t thought about it before.

As soon as he entered the building, he was met with a whirlwind of chaos. He rolled up his sleeves and set about helping get things organized. He noticed, as he worked, that Perth stood on the sidelines, barking orders, but never actually doing anything productive. King didn’t mind. The busier he kept himself, the less he had time to think.

A few hours into it, Perth pulled him aside to eat. He had ordered in some food from a Western franchised fast-food restaurant. King did his best to eat, but the portions were so huge and his appetite was so small, that he ended up leaving a lot of food on his plate. Perth finished his and King’s.

“What are you doing?” Perth barked at him around a mouthful of food.

King startled, “Nothing. I’m just sitting here!”

“No you’re not! You’re scratching yourself like a monkey with fleas!”

King bristled, “This shirt is tight and it is itchy! That silver stripe is irritating me.”

Perth delicately wiped his mouth and hands before answering, “Of course it is. Mine is irritating me too, but one simply does not scratch themselves like that in public! Beauty is painful. You must adapt.”

King nodded and privately thought it was a shame that Perth’s great understanding of what was proper didn’t extend to his table manners. Or really, pretty much any other area of his life. He was very attuned to how he thought others should behave though.

King excused himself and went back to work. Perth hadn’t told him about the thousands of red and white helium balloons tied with silver ribbons that were to be placed on the ceiling in perfect symmetry. King had been helping that crew for at least an hour and they still had lots more to do. He spent a great deal of time on the ladder, positioning them on the ceiling—which he thought was ridiculous. In fact the whole idea was ridiculous to King. As soon as the doors started opening when the party goers arrived, the breezes from outside would come in with them. The balloons would not stay in exact symmetry. But, he didn’t care. He was busy and that’s all that mattered.

He and the balloonist staff worked non-stop to fill up the ceiling. Time flew by and he was able to keep his mind solidly fixed on the task.

“P’King!” Perth called up to him from the bottom of the ladder. King looked down and saw that Perth had rolled up his shirt sleeves. He must have had to do a bit of physical work, instead of standing by and yelling at others. “The photographer for the photo booth has it all set up now. Come down so we can get a picture together.”

King slowly climbed down the ladder. “Is that really necessary?”

“Of course it is! All the pictures taken tonight will be shown on a screen during the evening. The hosts _must_ be in that lineup!” Perth grabbed hold of King’s arm to pull him along. King carefully pulled his arm out of Perth’s grasp and followed him to the photographer’s booth.

“We want a serious shot—no wigs or props,” Perth instructed the photographer. “Roll down your sleeves,” He ordered, as he was rolling down his own and fastening the cuffs. “Here,” Perth pointed to the front of the bench, “Sit in front.”

King sighed and sat down on the bench where Perth had indicated. Perth sat down behind him.

The photographer counted, “One, two…” and before she made it to ‘three’, Perth leaned forward and wrapped his arms around King. King reached over to remove Perth’s hand from his middle just as the camera shutter clicked.

The photographer smiled as she looked at her camera. “That’s perfect!” She pointed to a large screen located next to the game host’s banner that had been hung while King was busy with the balloons. He hadn’t had a chance to notice it before.

Suddenly the screen next to it lit up with the picture of King and Perth. He inwardly groaned when he saw that it looked as if he were holding Perth’s hand.

He got up from the bench and began to walk back to the balloon workers. He looked around and admired all of the changes that had been made while he had been busy. The tables were arranged in small groupings, except for one long table in the center of the room. It had a large “reserved” card on it. All of them were covered with white linen tablecloths. Some of them already had their floral centerpieces placed. King looked around and saw the nice lady florist, standing back and watching as a few young men, King assumed they were her sons when he saw P’First, placing them on the remaining tables. He knew she said she had three sons, but there were four young men working. His eyebrows moved a fraction when he recognized P’Thara as one of them. Bohn had told him that P’Thara was Duen’s cousin. He didn’t say that Duen’s aunt was the florist from the shop where Duen had purchased Bohn’s flowers. So King felt sure that P’Thara was a friend of one of the sons.

He flashed on the memory of when P’Thara was removing his stitches and talking about the camping trip. King had been so uncomfortable, both with the procedure and the conversation, that he had allowed himself to mentally fade a bit. And then he realized that P’Thara had changed topics and was speaking about the flower shop. At the time, he hadn’t understood what lead into it, but it must have been related to his connection there.

He saw P’Thara laugh at something the young man next to him had said. The guy turned a bit and King saw that it was P’Frong. King grinned. He wondered if Bohn knew that P’Frong’s family had been the supplier of the roses that Duen had given him.

He scanned the dance floor and saw that the band hadn’t arrived yet. All that was on the platform was the venue’s piano. They had offered to remove it before the party, but Perth had insisted that it stay. He said it lent ‘atmosphere’. To King it just looked like it took up room that the band could have used.

“P’King,” Perth said, coming up behind him, “I think the balloonist crew is about done, would you mind seeing to the caterers? They have just arrived and will need help and instructions on how to set everything up. I have things I need to tend to out here.”

King shook his head to indicate he didn’t mind and then hurried off to the kitchen. It was a happy, but chaotic scene in the kitchen as trays of food were being brought in. He helped to run around and turn on the ovens to preheat and then helped load the foods that needed to be kept cold into the walk-in refrigerators. After a bit, the catering team settled into their regular, last-minute duties, and there was nothing more he could do to help. He wandered out into the party area.

The overhead lights had been turned off and dim, floor lights had been turned on. He looked up to see the silver ribbons on the balloons, reflecting the dim lights so that it appeared as if the ceiling was almost like the night sky. King had to admit that the balloons were a good touch, even though he had thought they were stupid before.

Perth was at the door, greeting the party goers as they arrived. King could see a few of the tables were filled, with more people waiting at the door. He walked over to the bar and ordered a bottle of water.

“Water?!” a voice said from behind him. “Here, let me order you a real drink!” King turned to find Beam standing there. She gave her order to the bartender and then turned to King with a grin. “You know, I am quite angry with you for standing me up the other day.”

“I…uh…what? I didn’t stand you up!” he sputtered. She paid the bartender and handed one of the drinks to King.

“Is that still your favorite?”

He looked down at the drink and then nodded.

“I knew I hadn’t forgotten!” She said and sipped from her straw. “You read my text and you didn’t answer me. Obviously, I assumed you would be there to meet me.”

“Why would you assume that?”

She shrugged, “I guess I just wanted to believe it. I should tell you, there were people at the bar with me—I wanted them to get pictures of us together. When you didn’t show up, I faked a message from you saying to meet you somewhere else so we could be alone.”

“Why…why would you do that?!” he was aghast.

“I couldn’t let people know that you ghosted me!”

“Why are you here tonight? Did you play in the tournament?”

She tilted her head and grinned flirtatiously at him. “Honestly! Do I look like a nerdy gamer chick to you? No, don’t answer that because you must think so or you wouldn’t have asked. No, I did not play in your tournament. But I heard this was going to be the party of the year and that you were going to be here…so naturally, I went nerd hunting. I caught one,” she pointed to a table nearby, “See that guy? His name is Kiet, he’s from the Science Department. Do you know him?”

King looked at the guy and then shook his head ‘no’.

She shrugged, “You aren’t missing much. The guy has the personality of lint. But he played in the tournament and didn’t have a plus one…which is no surprise. Anyway, I’m here and you’re here, so tell me, how have you been, King?”

“I…I’m fine. I’m a bit confused though. What are you doing? We both decided ages ago that we were done. It was a mutual decision.”

She waved her hand, “Oh, I know. But lately, I don’t know…Perth and Karawek were talking to me about you, and us together, and while talking about those times, I realized I missed you.”

King took a drink from the glass she had given him. He shook his head, “That’s not how it works, Beam. When you miss someone, and I mean when you really truly miss someone, it doesn’t get triggered by a conversation. It’s…like every time you take a breath, your chest feels empty because they aren’t with you. Every heartbeat whispers their name…”

She cackled out a laugh and fell into him, grabbing his arm, and looking up into his face, “You have to be joking! Seriously? Have you started watching teen dramas, because that is the kind of silly, fairy tale nonsense storylines they have!”

King looked down into her laughing face and studied it. She was pretty. But there was no soul, no realness in her eyes. She was like a beautifully-wrapped present but when someone opened it, they would discover it was nothing more than a decorated, empty box. She was only for display. He shuddered at how foolish he had been in the past.

He looked away from her and his gaze immediately went to the center table in the middle of the room. Perth had removed the ‘reserved’ sign and a lot of the chairs were filled with people. _His_ people. All of his friends! And sitting near the far end of the table was Ram! There was an empty chair beside him. King decided that he was going to be the one sitting in _that_ seat!

“You’ll have to excuse me now, Beam! My friends are here!” King tried to move past her, but she grabbed his arm.

“Wait, what about us? Later, after the party?” she looked at him seductively.

He quickly glanced at the table to make sure no one had sat down beside Ram yet and seeing it was still empty, he looked back at Beam. “I think you should give Kiet a chance. He is a really great guy once you get to know him.”

“You said you didn’t know him!” she protested.

“I…uh…I made a mistake. He looks just like this guy named Kiet that I don’t know,” King said and hurriedly moved away from her.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” she called to his retreating back.

“Hi!” he called to the group as he approached the table. He quickly sat down in the empty seat next to Ram and smiled at him. “I didn’t know you were going to be here!”

“His brother invited him,” Duen said with an edge to his voice. He gave a mini shake of his head and looked away.

It seemed obvious that Duen was angry with King, but King had no idea why. He looked at Bohn, who gave King a slight shrug and looked away. King looked at Ram and Ram gave him a small smile with a raised eyebrow.

“Your key,” Ram said while holding out his hand.

King’s heart lurched as he looked down at Ram’s hand, expecting to see the condo key. But Ram’s hand was empty. King frowned and looked back at Ram’s face. “What?”

“Your car key?” Ram looked pointedly at King’s drink. “I’ll drive us home tonight.”

King looked at his drink that he had brought to the table with him, “Oh, I wasn’t…”

“It’s your party,” Ram said and wiggled his fingers.

“Okay,” King said. He stood up and pulled his keys from his pocket and gave them to Ram.

“She’s pretty,” Ram said and motioned with his head to the bar. No one was standing there at the moment, so King knew Ram was telling him that he had seen King and Beam together at the counter.

“No…I mean…” King shook his head and then looked Ram in the eye, “No.”

Ram looked at him for a moment and then gave a slight nod and then put the keys into his pocket.

King sat down silently. He found he didn’t really need to say anything as the group was in high spirits and most were drinking. He was vaguely surprised to see Boss and Mek had come to the party. But he was glad for it. In the pictures and stories from the night before, the three of them had missed the group outing. But tonight, all ten of them were together. It felt good to be with them all. So good that he forgot that he had been angry with them for not inviting him to join them the night before.

As he sat there, pretending to listen to everyone talking at once, he heard Ram’s voice in his mind, repeating “I’ll drive us home tonight”. ‘Us’ and ‘home’, in the same sentence. King was confused, but this time in a happy way. Could it possibly mean that Ram hadn’t actually moved out? But how could it mean that? He had taken everything and left.

The dinner was perfection, much better even than the tasting had been. After they had finished eating, bit by bit, parts of the group left the table. Ram, Duen, Ting, Tang, and Phu went to the photobooth. King watched as Perth made his way over to them, while Duen and Phu were looking through the props. Perth was talking to Ting, making her laugh. He rolled up his sleeves and messed with his hair while he was talking to her. King could read the signals clearly that Perth was flirting with her. Ram and Tang stood at an angle to them, seeming to be in a conversation, but King could tell that Tang wasn’t focused on Ram. He was watching Perth and Ting. Tang’s hands were held in fists, down to his side, and he was shifting his weight from foot-to-foot. He was very obviously jealous. King was fascinated and a bit amused by it. Ting was always complaining that she couldn’t get a boyfriend, when Tang was always at her side. King hoped that one day Tang would speak up and make Ting notice him.

Tee got up to go to the bar for another drink, Mek and Boss were deep into a private conversation, so Bohn moved over to Ram’s vacant seat.

“Is that Karawek’s boyfriend?” he asked, pointing to the table where Beam and her date were sitting with Karawek and a guy King didn’t know.

King shrugged, “No idea. I don’t really know her. Why? Are you interested in her? What about Duen?”

Bohn scowled at King. “I’m not interested in her! I would never mess up what I have with Duen. No, I was asking because that guy looks small and frail.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I just thought maybe he was the one who put that nasty bruise on Perth’s arm.”

“Oh that! No, he got drunk at the condo Monday night and Ram had to drive him home. Perth lost his balance and slammed his arm into a doorknob at his house,” King explained.

“A doorknob, hmm. Does he live in a haunted house then?”

King laughed, “No! Just a regular house. Why?”

“Because that ‘doorknob’ had fingers. That bruise is from someone squeezing his arm, and I don’t think that frail guy with Karawek could do it,” Bohn explained.

“Really? Wow! I saw a part of the bruise on Tuesday and asked him about it and that was the story he told me. I don’t think he even met Karawek until Wednesday, so no, not that guy. Perth knows a lot of people around here though, so it is hard to guess who it could have been.”

Bohn nodded and then turned his attention to King, “So, where were you last night?”

King blinked at him in confusion. “I was home. Apparently no one thought to invite me to your get together.”

Bohn frowned and shook his head, “No, Ram said he invited you. He said he put it in the note that he left for you. And then when you didn’t show up, he wouldn’t let any of us call you because he said that you were probably busy. I was just curious about what you were doing.”

King’s mouth was dry and his heart was racing, “What note?”

Bohn’s frown deepened, “What do you mean ‘what note’? The note he wrote to tell you that he was going to Duen’s after school to do his laundry. You were supposed to meet up with us at the bar and Ram was going to ride back to the condo with you. He was going to go back to Duen’s today to pick up the dogs, but you didn’t show up last night. He got totally wasted, so Duen made him spend the night at his place. It ruined my plans. I was hoping to get Duen to spend the night with me!”

“Wait…so, he left a note?” King asked in bewilderment.

Bohn shook his head, “How many drinks have you had? Yes, a note! A piece of paper with writing on it! Anyway, Duen’s pissed at you for not showing up last night. Ram is his best friend, you know. And, like I said, Ram spent the night there and he walked the dogs back to the condo today. You were already gone, so we went by and picked him up on our way here.”

King looked at the group at the photobooth. Perth had left the area and Tang was right back to following Ting around. Duen and Phu had selected neon colored wigs and contrasting boas for the group. They were in the process of putting them on to prepare for their picture. He smiled when he saw that even Ram was involved. He had a pink Mohawk wig on with a green boa wrapped around his neck.

King turned to Bohn, “But there wasn’t…”

“Attention! Attention everyone!” Perth called over a microphone. The room fell silent and listened to him thanking them all for participating in the tournament. He thanked the game host site and the venue. He thanked all of the vendors who had pulled everything together with such short notice. He then introduced the band. “Once they start playing, I want to see all of you out here on the dance floor! But first…there is a little something special that I would like to share with you.” As the party goers applauded for his speech, he walked over to the piano and sat down on the bench.

“Hey! He didn’t introduce you as his partner with all of this or even mention you!” Bohn said in anger.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad that my part is over.”

“But still…you worked really hard…” Bohn stopped when he heard a few notes being played on a piano.

King looked at Perth who must have had arranged to have a spotlight on the piano. He gave a little nod to himself in understanding. This was why Perth had wanted the piano left on the platform.

Perth played a few random notes, a very basic melody, and then paused. Suddenly he began to play the opening bars to _‘Stay’_ by Rihanna. Then Perth leaned slightly forward, towards the microphone mounted on the piano. “ _All along it was a fever_ …” he sang.

King was impressed. Perth had bragged on his playing and singing very often, but King hadn’t really taken him seriously, but he was really good!

“… _I want you to stay. Oooh._ ” Perth sang as he reached the end of the song. Once the final note was played, he took his hands off the keys, and received a standing ovation from everyone in the place. It went on and on. It was obvious that Perth was loving every second of it.

The band started to play as Perth left the platform. People swarmed around him offering their congratulations and telling him how wonderful he was. King gave a small smile and a slight shake of his head. He knew this was the real reason that Perth had wanted this party, so he could perform.

“I’m going to the restroom,” he told Bohn.

The restroom was located in a tiny hallway off of the foyer of the building. As King entered the foyer, the double doors to the dining/band area closed behind him, muffling the sounds. Although the lighting was much brighter in the foyer, an escape from the loud music was welcome.

After he was finished, he stopped by the sink to wash his hands. He was alone in the bathroom and he wasn’t in any hurry to get back to the party. He wanted a second to think.

He thought about what Bohn had said. Ram had merely gone to do laundry at Duen’s house the day before. Phu must have agreed to pick up Ram and the dogs before school. He made a stop at Duen’s and dropped the dogs and Ram’s clothes there before going on to school. That was why Ram’s textbooks, clothes, and dogs were missing. He hadn’t moved out. King let out a sigh of relief. There were still inconsistencies that didn’t match up. The missing note that Bohn insisted Ram had left for him. The trashed container of breakfast and the dumped coffee. King was still confused about those. He looked in the mirror above the sink and flipped his hair back. He decided that he and Ram needed to talk. He was going to go back into the dining area and ask Ram if they could go outside where it was quieter. He opened the outer door to the restroom and instinctively stepped back when he came face-to-face with Perth.

“There you are! I have been searching everywhere for you,” Perth said excitedly. “Something has come up and I need to speak to you privately.” He grabbed King by the sleeve and pulled him down the hall a few feet until they came to a small, countersunk area. It was the doorway for the maintenance department.

“Okay,” King said, pulling his arm away from Perth. “What is it? Is something wrong?”

“What did you think about my song?” Perth asked with a grin.

“Your song? Uh… it was really good. Why did you drag me here though? If that’s all it is…”

“No! It’s not. I wanted to tell you something.” Perth took a deep breath and let it out, holding onto his chest. “My application to the college here has been accepted!”

“Oh, well that’s really nice. So you’re not going back to the UK then?” King asked, still perplexed by what the urgency was.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. What do you think I should do?”

“I really don’t know. I guess you should compare the schools to see which one has what you are looking for in your areas of study.”

Perth shook his head, “See, that’s not what I asked. I asked what _you_ thought I should do.”

“I really don’t have an opinion. It’s your decision.”

“No! I want you to tell me what I just sang! I was giving you a hint with the song choice. I want you to tell me that you want me to stay!” Although Perth was still smiling, his eyes had taken on a look of anger.

“Oh…um…I’m sorry, if you are suggesting what I think you are…I don’t feel that way about you.”

“Okay, I was hoping for a bit more romantic response, but it’s okay. Okay.” He paused for a moment, seeming to be lost in thought. “So…tell me…is it the trashy thot or the stone-faced sphinx?”

King felt rage at the term. He knew exactly who Perth was talking about. “Don’t call him that!”

“Well, that answered my question. Okay, so what does he have that I don’t have? We’re identical, P’King. I-DENT-I-CAL! We are basically the same person, times two.”

“No, you’re not. The two of you couldn’t be more different!”

Perth shrugged, “That’s true. I have all the personality and talent and he has…well, nothing much that I can see. So you tell me,” Perth grabbed hold of King’s upper arm in a hard grip and pushed him back a few inches until his back hit the door of the maintenance room. He gritted his teeth and growled through them, “Tell me what he has that I don’t!”

King tried to pull his arm out of Perth’s grip but it only made Perth clamp down harder. King threw his other arm between them as Perth’s face got closer to his. King was scared but more than that, he was furious. Perth had no right to put him in this position or to treat him this way. “Alright, if you want to know so badly, I’ll tell you! My heart. He has my heart! Whenever I see him, it feels like it is going to jump out of my chest. That’s how I knew you weren’t him the first time I saw you in our kitchen. I didn’t even know you existed, but my heart knew you weren’t him!”

Perth pulled his face away a bit from King’s. “‘ _Our_ ’ kitchen? Oh, that’s so _cute_.” He smirked. “Too bad he doesn’t feel anything for you. He told me that himself.”

King nodded, “I know, I heard him. It doesn’t matter though. I still love him.”

The grin was back on Perth’s face, “You heard? You’re welcome! See, I saw your shadow in the hallway when you went back to the bedroom that first night; he thought you were in the shower, but I knew you weren’t. I also assumed you could hear us talking from the bedroom, so that’s why I asked him. I was trying to help you out. I had just witnessed that cute little exchange where you looked into his eyes and answered him without him even having to say a word. I was trying to save you from being hurt.” He softened his tone, “Look, I can help you out and I won’t mind at all. You’ll never have him; but you can have me. We can leave here and go to the house. I’ll pull my hair to the side and stick on one of my tattoos…we can even do it in his bed.”

“You’re disgusting,” King exclaimed as he struggled to push Perth away.

“Disgusting can be fun!” Perth said laughingly. “I’ll even let you call me ‘Cool Boy’. You will be screaming it for me like you screamed it for him when you woke up and found him gone from your bed.”

King’s fury intensified. He began to struggle against Perth with everything he had. “No! Get away from me! Let me go!”

Perth laughed, “Nope, that’s not going to happen!”

King looked into Perth’s eyes and saw that they had changed. It looked like all traces of sanity had fled from them. He suddenly remembered the eyes of the dog that had attacked him as a small child. The dog had the same look in his eyes.

A shadow appeared next to Perth and King darted his eyes to see what it was. He felt his blood run cold when he saw Ram standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Perth. Ram looked into King’s eyes and King could see the fury in them.

Perth turned his head to look at Ram; Ram turned to look at Perth. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity to King. And then, Perth smiled.


	11. Chapter 11

Perth’s grin grew larger, and then he tilted his head slightly. “You and I have never had twin telepathy; I have never been able to read you. Except for one thing: I can always tell when you are lying. You do it so poorly.”

Ram gave a tiny nod, “Let’s test it, okay? If you don’t let him go, I am going to mess up your face so badly that no one would ever believe we are twins.” He tilted his head in the opposite direction of Perth’s. “Am I lying?”

Perth let go of King’s arm and backed away from him. Ram reached over and gently took King’s wrist in his hand. He gave it a little squeeze and then he began to walk. With his free hand, King reached over and held onto Ram’s arm as they walked together out of the countersunk area. When they reached the hall that was outside the restrooms, King saw a guy at the other end of it walking towards the foyer. The guy looked like Bohn.

“Ram! I know what it looked like, but you have it all wrong,” Perth said as he quickly walked up behind them. “He has been after me since we first met.”

King gasped and started to turn around to confront Perth, but Ram gave him a double squeeze on his wrist and kept walking. King assumed Ram was signaling him to ignore Perth, so King kept his mouth shut.

“See…he told me he likes it rough and spontaneous, so I was playing along with his fantasies,” Perth continued.

Ram continued walking forward and King kept up beside him. King could feel the muscles in Ram’s arm tensing, but Ram kept a gentle hold on King’s wrist.

“And not only that…you should know that he is seeing some dude named James. He slipped and called me ‘James’ on our drive here today.”

They came out of the hallway and entered the foyer. All of King’s and Ram’s friends were there, but no one else was. That made no sense to King. He felt Ram’s stride hitch for a millisecond and King knew that Ram was surprised, too.

“You cannot take the side of someone you’ve only known for a short time over your own brother!” Perth exclaimed. “Especially when you don’t know how trashy this guy is! I could tell you stories…In fact, I will! Thursday, when you were in class, his phone was shut off all afternoon. I saw online that he had been with that skank, Beam. You know who I’m talking about. I saw you watching them when they were at the bar. Yeah, it was her. And not only that…I was talking to him when he got back to the school, and she sent him a picture. A picture! Of them in bed together, I have no doubt. You should have seen his face light up when he looked at it. Couldn’t take his eyes off of it!”

Ram let go of King’s wrist and then he turned around to face Perth. Perth made some kind of odd squealing noise and turned to run. And, as if by long practice, Tee and Bohn moved together to block the doors to the dining room. They held their arms crossed against their chests. Tang, Boss, and Mek did the same thing with the doors that led outside. And Duen, Ting, and Phu blocked the opening to the hallway that they had just traveled through.

King understood then. It wasn’t really happening. He hadn’t slept well the night before and he must have fallen asleep. He thought he was probably still on his couch waiting for Perth to arrive. He could hear the overhead lights humming and where he was standing seemed to be overly bright. Everything else, including his friends, all looked hazy as if they were standing in fog.

He could see Ram grab Perth by the shirt and slam him against the wall. Ram was extremely angry. He put his face right into Perth’s and yelled at him, “P’King is an adult and he can go anywhere he wants and he can do whatever he wants! You are not to talk _about_ him, you are not to talk _to_ him, and you are not to even _think_ about him! Am I making myself clear?!”

Perth had his arms held up, very obviously surrendering. The look on his face was pure terror. “Okay, I won’t! I won’t! I swear!” he said in a breathless, whiny voice.

Ram stared at Perth for a few moments, breathing hard, with his jaw clenched. He shoved hard against Perth’s chest with his hands and then let his shirt go. He backed up a few steps, clenching and unclenching his hands. He took a deep breath and let it out and then turned to walk away.

Perth straightened his shirt, rubbing his hand down the creases that Ram had put in it. “Trust me,” he said, still smoothing his shirt, “I wouldn’t go near him. It boggles the mind to imagine how many sexually-transmitted diseases he could be carrying!”

Ram spun on his heel and punched Perth in the jaw. Perth flew back and hit the wall. The force of it caused him to bounce back and Ram punched him in the same spot a second time.

This time Perth fell sideways and instead of hitting the wall, he hit the floor. His shoulder took the brunt of the fall, and Perth ended up lying on his stomach. King saw something fly out of Perth’s mouth when he hit the ground. King watched it fly through the air and then land on the floor. It slid a few centimeters, leaving a bloody trail behind it. It reminded King of a snail trail. He focused intently on it, trying to determine what it was. He slowly began to realize it wasn’t some strange snail, but rather, a tooth. He turned his head slightly and looked at Perth lying on the floor. There was a red halo encircling his head. Then King shifted his gaze and saw Bohn holding Ram by the shoulders, peering in his face, saying, “Another time, Ram! He’s down. You know you can’t! You have to stop!”

Duen ran by and King was distracted by him. He watched as Duen shoved the door to the dining room open, and run through it. After the door closed, King looked back towards Bohn and Duen. Bohn was still holding Ram’s shoulders and talking to him. Ram wasn’t looking at Bohn. He was looking at Perth on the floor. “I know!” Bohn told him, “I would feel the same way, but you have to stop! You know I’m right!”

Ram then did something very strange, but then King remembered that dreams are always strange. Ram roared. Not exactly like a lion, but close. It was a growling kind of scream. After he made the weird noise, he finally looked at Bohn and nodded. Bohn nodded back at him and then squeezed Ram’s shoulders.

King looked back at the tooth. It was still there. He stared at it, trying to make sense of it. It still had its roots attached.

The door from the dining room opened and King could hear a loud burst of music. P’Thara ran in through the door, carrying his backpack. Duen and P’Frong were right on his heels. P’Thara put his backpack on the floor near where Perth was lying and pulled out a box. He opened the box and removed a pair of gloves and put them on. P’Thara felt around on Perth’s neck and then he and Duen turned Perth over. Perth looked like he had a beard made out of blood. King didn’t like seeing that so he turned his eyes back to the tooth.

After a time, he heard P’Thara saying that Perth had lost a tooth. King raised his arm and pointed to it. He saw P’Thara walk over to it and then King lowered his arm. Ting and Duen came to look, and of course, Tang was right beside Ting. P’Thara said, “I need someone to go to the bar and tell the bartender that we have a medical emergency out here. I need a shot of milk in one glass and a double shot of their strongest whiskey in another.” Duen, Ting, and Tang all set off at a trot. The doors opened and King could hear the music again for a moment.

“What happened here tonight?” P’Thara asked from where he was kneeling beside the tooth.

King heard Bohn’s voice from somewhere off to the side of him, “Ram and Perth had an argument and Perth took a swing at Ram. He missed. Ram swung back and didn’t miss.”

P’Thara nodded, “So…is that what everybody saw happen?”

Several voices around the room, all voices of his friends, agreed with Bohn’s story. King thought that was odd because that wasn’t what happened. Perth didn’t swing at Ram. He wouldn’t do that. He was against fighting and it was obvious that he was frightened of Ram.

“Next question—how is it that your group was the only ones here in the foyer when it happened?” P’Thara asked.

“Uh…well, um…Boss and Mek were talking about leaving, so we all came out here to convince them to stay longer. I don’t know why no one else was around,” Bohn answered. King could tell it he was lying again. His voice was coming out faster and higher-pitched than normal.

“ _All_ of you came out here to convince them to stay?” P’Thara asked. He sounded suspicious.

“Well…no, actually. Ram, King, and Perth were already out here,” Bohn answered.

The doors opened again and Ting, Tang, and Duen hurried back in. Duen was carrying a glass with a bit of milk in it and Ting was carrying a glass with, King supposed, the whiskey in it. It looked the right color for it. “Thank you,” P’Thara said as he took the milk from Duen. He carefully picked up the tooth and dropped it into the glass of milk. It left a slight pink trail in the milk as it sank to the bottom. King remembered as a child he had loved to drink pink milk. His nephews still loved it. Theirs didn’t have teeth floating in it though. He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see it anymore.

“Bohn just told me—and the others agreed—that he witnessed Perth taking a swing at Ram but missed. Ram defended himself by punching back and his punch landed. Do the three of you agree to that?” P’Thara asked.

King could hear them all agreeing that was what had happened. He heard the snap of rubber gloves being removed and then the clicking of a plastic bag being closed, but no voices. No one was talking. That wasn’t like them; in their group, someone was always talking.

He heard a snapping sound very close to him. “King?” P’Thara said, “Will you open your eyes for me?”

King didn’t want to. He didn’t want to see that pink milk with a tooth in it. He wished the dream would hurry up and end. He had read once that dreams were actually very short but this one seemed to be lasting forever.

He smelled something so awful that it burned his nose and throat and felt like the back of his head was going to blow off. He opened his eyes and gasped.

P’Thara snapped his fingers in King’s face and King flinched away. P’Thara gave a nod and replaced the lid back on the smelling salts.

“What’s wrong with P’King?” asked Ting in a worried voice.

“Nothing now,” P’Thara answered. He reached for the cup in Ting’s hand, “King? I need you to drink this for me.”

King accepted the glass and took a drink. It was straight whiskey and it burned all the way down. He gasped again, but he noticed that the humming from the overhead light was gone. He could faintly hear the music being played in the main room. The fog that had surrounded his friends was gone.

“Drink all of it,” P’Thara urged. He turned to Ting, “It is called ‘depersonalization’. It’s caused by extreme anxiety and stress. It’s like a fainting spell. His mind couldn’t handle anymore and it went into a dreamlike state to protect him.” He turned to King, “Did it feel like a dream? Were you aware of what was happening at all?”

King nodded, “I think so. Perth’s tooth is in a glass of milk, right?”

“Yes! That’s right! Since you were aware of what happened, I’m going to need a statement from you for the record. What happened?”

King looked down into his glass. He took another drink, while he struggled to recall exactly what Bohn had said. It felt like he was trying to recall elements from a dream. He took a breath and looked back up at P’Thara. “Perth made a pass at me and I said ‘no’. He didn’t take it well. Ram came to help me and the two of them argued. Perth said some really ugly things about me and Ram told him to stop.” He paused and drank the last of the whiskey.

“And then what happened,” P’Thara prompted, taking the empty glass from King’s hand.

King gave a small shrug, “Perth tried to punch Ram, but he missed. And Ram punched Perth. Perth fell on the floor and his tooth flew across the room…”

“How many times did Ram hit Perth?” P’Thara asked. It was a question that he hadn’t asked anyone else. Bohn moved behind P’Thara and stealthily held up one finger. “Only once,” King answered.

P’Thara nodded, “Do you know why all of your friends were out here in the foyer, but no one else was?”

“Mek and Boss were leaving, but the group wanted them to stay longer and followed them out here to talk to them. See, they are fixing up a place they moved in together recently. Mek wants them to stick to a budget and it’s a cash bar and they had reached their spending limit. Boss isn’t that excited about the budget, by the way. He wanted to stay longer. Bohn told them if they stayed, he would buy all their drinks for the rest of the night.”

P’Thara spun around and said, “That was very nice of you! You are a very ‘helpful’ friend.” Bohn laughed and moved away from behind P’Thara.

“I don’t know why no one else was out here,” King continued. “I just saw the eight of them when we came out of that hallway,” he pointed to it. “Ram and I walked out of there together, and Perth was following behind us.”

P’Thara nodded, and then said in a low voice, “That’s the story I am putting in the record. All of you should memorize it, just in case.”

That’s when King became aware that the group had formed a semi-circle behind him and Ram was at his side. Ram took hold of his wrist and gave a couple of gentle squeezes. King interpreted it to mean that Ram was asking if he were okay. King reached over with his free hand and took hold of Ram’s arm and gave it a squeeze to assure him that he was.

“I think I should check your hand,” P’Thara said to Ram.

King felt Ram shrug, “Nothing’s broken.”

“Let me see!” P’Thara said with a laugh. “I’m sure you’re right, but better safe than sorry.”

Ram held out his hand and allowed P’Thara to examine it. “I would gladly sacrifice a finger of my right hand,” Ram said.

King startled. He knew that was from “The Double”, the book, not the movie. The Original was having an imaginary conversation in his mind and had declared that he would be happy to sacrifice a finger from his right hand if that were the price to free himself from the Double.

Ram felt King’s sudden movement and turned to him and gave him a perplexed look.

P’Thara laughed, “I don’t think you have to worry about that. There is just a bit of swelling, and it will probably bruise. But you were right; nothing appears to be broken.”

“This is the first time I was ever happy to lose a bet!” Bohn said.

P’Thara grinned and looked up from his examination of Ram’s hand. “I didn’t lose! I have never bet against Ram.”

Bohn laughed, “Well, I won’t ever again!”

“P’Doctor! He is waking up,” P’Frong called. He was sitting next to Perth on the floor, monitoring him. King had forgotten P’Frong was in the room. King was intrigued by P’Frong’s use of a nickname for P’Thara. They seemed to be much closer than King had realized.

“Ow!” Perth exclaimed loudly. He reached up and felt his jaw. He looked over and saw P’Thara finishing his examination of Ram’s hand. “Hey! Why are you tending to him? He attacked me!”

P’Thara clicked his tongue, “All of the witnesses have given statements that it was _you_ who attacked him, unsuccessfully. He was only defending himself when he punched you. That wasn’t wise of you. Surely you know your brother is a professional boxer!”

“They’re all lying! He…oh!” He grabbed his jaw again. He reached in his mouth to pull out the gauze.

“No! Leave it there!” P’Thara ordered. “You lost a tooth. We have it saved in some milk and we are going to get you to the hospital. Hopefully there is still time for it to be put back in its socket.”

Perth wiped his hand across his face and looked at his palm, which had collected a lot of the blood from his chin. “Ram! Look what you did to me!” He looked down at his shirt and gasped. “Do you have the faintest idea how much this shirt cost? You ruined it!”

“Perth,” Ram said quietly.

Perth froze in mid rant and then slowly looked up at Ram.

Once he saw that he had Perth’s attention, Ram said, “We’re done.”

“What? What do you mean by ‘we’re done’?!” Perth’s voice was sarcastic, but King thought he detected a trace of fear in Perth’s eyes.

“It’s over. I don’t want anything to do with you,” Ram said, still in a quiet tone.

“Because of the little plant boy? I told you I would stay away from him!”

King could feel Ram’s muscles tightening in his arm, which showed his fury at Perth’s words, but his tone remained the same quiet tone as before when he answered Perth. “It is because of you. When we were kids, I had to be around you. We’re men now, and I choose who I let into my life. It will never be you.”

Perth’s eyes darted wildly around the room. Then he paused and looked at Ram. He smirked but then grabbed his jaw and grimaced at the pain the facial movement had caused. “I’ll tell her. I’ll tell her about Pin and all the others!”

Ram nodded, “Good. She needs to know.”

P’Frong spoke to P’Thara, “I have my car here. I would be glad to drive you to the hospital.”

“Thank you! The sooner we get him there, the better his chances are of the implanting of the tooth to work. I’ll call the hospital on the way,” he answered P’Frong. P’Thara picked up his bag from the floor and took the glass of milk containing Perth’s tooth from Duen (King was surprised to see that the milk was white. Earlier he could have sworn that it had turned pink when the tooth was dropped in it.). With his free arm, P’Thara slid it around Perth to help him walk.

“Wait!” Perth demanded, “P’King! You’re a good guy! Talk to him for me. Don’t let him do this!”

King gave Ram’s arm a little squeeze, hoping that Ram would understand that he meant he had Ram’s back. King looked at Perth and shook his head ‘no’.

“RAM!!!! We’re brothers! You can’t disown me! And even more than just brothers; we’re twins!” Perth argued as P’Thara on one side of him and P’Frong on the other were taking him towards the doors leading outside.

“No, we’re not twins, Perth,” Ram said firmly. “We’re doppelgangers.”

P’Frong opened the door and together he and P’Thara maneuvered Perth through it. As the door was closing, they could hear Perth screaming, “RAM!!!”

The group stood in their semicircle silently for a few moments. The door from the dining area opened, loud music filled the room, and two girls walked out into the foyer. They cast confused looks at the group and then hurriedly dodged around Perth’s blood that was on the floor on their way to the restroom.

Bohn broke the silence. “Ram, we’ll stick to the story, no matter what. None of us will back out if the police start questioning us.” Everyone agreed with Bohn. Some even reaching over to pat Ram’s arms or back.

“Thank you,” Ram said, “But Perth won’t tell. It’d be bad press for my dad.”

Another set of girls came out of the dining area, into the foyer, on the way to the restroom. “Hey!” one of them called to the group, “What happened out here? Why is there blood everywhere?”

“Some girl just gave birth there,” Ting answered. “It will be in the news tomorrow.”

“Was it a girl or a boy?” another one asked.

Ting shrugged, “We didn’t ask. We’re not nosy.”

The girls looked at each other and then hurried away. Tang nudged Ting. “Ting!” he scolded.

“What? They seem to want to gossip so I gave them something to gossip about. They will be so focused on who had a baby that they won’t be making any other guesses about where the blood came from!” she retorted.

When King heard the sound of the loud music that had accompanied the restroom visitors into the foyer, he suddenly felt exhausted. He didn’t want to go back in there. He took his hand off of Ram’s arm and began to search his pockets.

He glanced up to find Ram looking at him with a puzzled frown. “I’m looking for my keys.”

“I have them,” Ram said.

King nodded, he remembered then that he had given them to Ram earlier in the evening, when he first sat down at the table. “Will you take me home?”

Ram nodded, but before they could move, Mek stopped them.

“Uh…King? Doesn’t someone have to announce the winners of the tournament?” he asked.

King sighed, “Yeah, I forgot. I’ll do that now.”

“Boss and I can do it for you. We didn’t play in it, so probably no one will care if we announce it.”

King felt a surge of relief. “Thank you!” He let go of Ram’s arm and pulled out his phone. He found the message with the information on it and handed his phone to Mek. Mek took it and read the information. “I’m going to take a screenshot and send it to myself,” he said.

King nodded and watched him for a second, before he noticed that Boss was looking at him intently. Once their eyes met, Boss looked pointedly at King’s hand. Without realizing it, King had once again latched onto Ram. Ram was in a conversation with Tee and Bohn. He had reclaimed King’s wrist in his hand. King looked back at Boss who slightly raised his eyebrows in a questioning look. King raised his chin a few millimeters and then lowered it, an almost invisible ‘yes’. Boss gave him a huge grin and then hurriedly bent down to the floor so no one else could see it.

Mek handed King back his phone. “What are you doing down there?” he asked Boss.

“Just tying my shoe,” Boss said, popping back up.

Mek ground a knuckle in Boss’ forehead, “You’re wearing sandals!”

Boss rubbed the spot on his forehead, “Yeah, I realized that once I was down there.”

Mek shook his head in exasperation. He turned to King, “We’ll go do that now. Is there anything else that needs done?”

King couldn’t think of anything, but he hadn’t been the one who finalized the arrangements, so he wasn’t sure what the plans were.

“There are cards for my dad’s business in there. Have them call my dad with any problems,” Ram said decisively.

Mek nodded, “Ram, you did the right thing tonight. I’ve been there.”

“You?” Tee asked, his voice was surprised.

“Yeah, me! One time a guy was insulting Boss and I had to do it.”

“I want to hear about this!” Bohn said.

Mek laughed, “I’ll tell you all about it after I make the announcement. I think King wants to go home now.”

Everyone said their goodbyes and went back into the dining area, with Mek teasing Bohn about their cover story, reminding him that he had to buy Mek’s and Boss’ drinks the rest of the night. Ram gave King’s wrist a little pull and they walked out of the building. As they made their way to the car, King saw a spot of fresh blood splatter on the sidewalk. He knew that must have been where Perth had screamed Ram’s name. He skirted around it and kept walking.

In the car, Ram turned on King’s playlist. It was odd because Ram always drove in silence. King took it as a sign that Ram didn’t want any kind of conversation. So King rolled down his window, snuggled down in his seat, and listened to the music.

Once they arrived back at the condo, Ram parked the car and got out. King was a bit slower to move. Ram walked a few feet down the sidewalk and then turned back to look. King leaned against the front of the car and tilted his head back to look at the stars.

He turned to see Ram watching him. “I’m okay. I just want to get some air. You can go ahead.”

Ram nodded and walked into the building. King watched him leave. He imagined that Ram needed some time alone, too. Disowning a family member must be one of the most difficult things to do.

His phone sounded an alert that he had received a message. He took out his phone and saw that it was from Mek. He opened it and read the top three teams who had won the cash prizes. Tee and Bohn came in at first place. The second-place prize was won by a team that King didn’t know. Third place went to King and Perth. He sighed and shut off his phone. He hoped this was the last thing he ever heard about that tournament.

King looked back up at the stars. He needed some time to process everything that had happened that night. Starting with that weird encounter with Perth. He blamed himself for going with Perth to that little hiding place in the hall, but he hadn’t expected Perth to come on to him. He had thought there was some problem with a vendor or something related to the party. He shuddered at the memory of Perth pawing at him, and the things he had said to King. King felt revulsion at the memory.

He sighed and raked back his hair. He had done the same thing to Ram. He was ashamed of himself and had been trying to stop this thought from coming back ever since that ride to his grandmother’s house. But now, especially when he had been on the other side of something like that, he forced himself to face it. Ram probably felt the same way about what happened as he did when it was Perth. No…it was worse for Ram. King and Ram were friends and a person should feel safe with their friends.

He pushed away from the car and went to sit on a bench. He bent a bit at the waist and stared at the ground in front of him. There was something that he hadn’t been able to face, but he had to…for Ram’s sake. He took a deep breath and then wiped the sweat from his palms on his jeans. He swallowed hard and then gave a little nod to himself and let the thought that he had been pushing away so desperately to finally come forward.

Ram had gone along with it. He hadn’t fought King the way that King had fought Perth. And the reason Ram had gone along with it was because of their friendship. King could hear the memory of himself yelling at Ram that he was in pain; he felt torture. King sat upright and flipped his hair back again. He was shaking all over. He knew what it was called if you forced someone physically, but…he also knew it was the same thing if you used someone’s kindness against them. King hadn’t meant to do that, but he realized that was what he had done.

He turned to look at the building. He suddenly felt sure that Ram was up in the condo gathering his things together. After hearing all those lies that Perth had said about King, this time Ram would be leaving for real. It wouldn’t take him long. King stood up and began to hurriedly walk towards the building. He realized after everything that had happened, Ram might not ever want to see him again. King was determined that he would apologize to Ram before he left. King owed him that.

He arrived at the elevator and pushed the button. The elevator was on the top floor and it didn’t move. King looked at the stairs to the side of him. He felt overwhelmed with panic at the thought of not catching Ram before he left. He pushed the button again, but then he sprinted over to the stairs and ran up them. Flight after flight, until he reached his floor. He ran down the corridor so fast that he almost missed his own door. Ram had left it open for him, and at the last second, he made a sharp turn and flew into the condo, slamming the door behind him. The dogs barked at the sound and King was relieved to hear them and to know they were still there. The light was on in the entry hall and he kicked his shoes off next to Ram’s, before bolting into the dark living room.

Ram was standing by the window, looking out, drinking from a bottle of water. King tried to still his breathing and slow his heart rate, but he was overwhelmed with thankfulness that Ram was still there.

“Cool Boy!” he called, and it came out a bit louder than what he had intended.

Ram startled and turned to look at King.

“I know he said I did, but I did NOT come on to Perth,” he blurted out. Then King put his hands over his mouth. He was subconsciously trying to hold back what he was going to say next, but then he forced himself to uncover his mouth and say it. “I didn’t do anything to him…but…but I did attack you in the tent!”

Ram put down the bottle of water and hurried to King, “No!”

“Yes! Yes, I did! I did it! I’m so sorry!” King said. It came out so fast it was like it was all one word.

Ram pulled King into his arms and held him tightly. King was trembling all over. “No, you didn’t!” Ram said as he stroked the back of King’s head.

“I wish I didn’t, but I did!”

“No. It was us, not just you. And it’s okay,” Ram said.

King wasn’t a crier by nature, but he felt like crying then. He bit his bottom lip to try to hold it back. “And I know you saw the picture of me at your house having dinner. I didn’t mean to…he tricked me and your mom had cooked a special meal…and I couldn’t disrespect her. I couldn’t do it!”

“No, I wouldn’t want you to,” Ram soothed.

“I wouldn’t have stayed if your dad was there, but he wasn’t. And your mom was so nice…I just…I had to stay. I got to talk to Ruj for a moment and he told me that he thinks you left because you were mad that he messed with your razor. I told him that I thought it was first-year stress. He asked me to give you a message if I saw you. He wants you to know he is sorry and he won’t do it again.”

“I’ll send him a message tomorrow,” Ram answered. He continued to stroke the back of King’s head. King felt him take a deep breath, then Ram asked, “Why the couch? You didn’t sleep there the first night.”

King pulled his face out of Ram’s neck where he had hidden it. “I promised Perth I wouldn’t tell, so I didn’t. But now I can. He said that he woke up and came in to the bedroom to wake you up to take him home…he said that I was…” King paused. “He said I was all over you and wouldn’t let you get up. He said that the two of you joked about it. You called me a boa constrictor and he said I was more like an octopus.” King had to swallow hard and bite his lip at the pain that came from that. He hadn’t realized how much it had hurt his feelings to know they were laughing at him that way until he spoke it.

Ram squeezed him closer. “NO!” he said vehemently. “I caught him taking pictures of you. They got deleted.”

King thought about it and the images came to life in his mind. Ram asleep, awakening to find Perth in the room taking pictures, throwing the covers off, and going after Perth. “Deleted?” King asked. “But he didn’t want to, did he? You made him. He has a bruise on his wrist. I noticed it, but Bohn saw it better. He said it was from someone’s hand. He saw the finger marks. Was that you?”

“They got deleted,” Ram repeated. “There was some noise. You woke up.”

King knew that this was Ram’s way of admitting it. ‘Some noise’ was Perth crying out in surrender. It woke up both him and the dogs that night. “After he told me that, I just…I thought I was attacking you when I was asleep. I moved to the couch because I wanted you to feel safe.”

Ram sighed. “I felt lonely.”

King couldn’t hold it back any longer, so he buried his face in Ram’s neck again and began to cry. “I’m sorry! I just wanted things back the way they were.”

“Whoa! No, no, no! Shh, shh!” Ram crooned softly as he began to sway them gently from side-to-side.

“There was no note! Bohn said you left one, but it wasn’t here. It was dark in here and everything of yours was gone. I didn’t know where you were, and I wanted to message you, but I couldn’t!”

“You can. Whenever you want,” Ram whispered.

“And you left me breakfast and coffee, didn’t you? I found it in the trash and the coffee was dumped out. You didn’t do that, did you?” King was sobbing harder now and he was clutching Ram’s shirt in his fists.

“No,” Ram said, stroking King’s head. “I wouldn’t.”

“Perth was here. He did it! And he stole your note! He wanted me to think…” King couldn’t finish the sentence because of his sobs. After a few moments of very deep, full-chest sobs, he managed to get out, “And everybody was out, having fun, and all I had to talk to was your Venus flytrap that you left behind!”

“Perth’s gone and we’re okay,” Ram said softly.

“For now, but he just—he just pops up all the time!”

Ram bent his head and laid his forehead on King’s shoulder. He quietly chuckled. King had never heard him laugh before and it sounded husky and deep, but soft and warm, like melted honey. It danced joyfully down his spine and left chills in its wake. “He won’t. I won’t let him,” Ram assured King.

King took a deep breath and let out a sigh. It had felt as if the world had been turned on its axis and had been spinning out of control for awhile, but now it felt as if it had righted itself and had slowed down. The world felt normal again.

“Okay?” Ram asked. King nodded and pulled away from him. Ram reached over and grabbed some tissues from the box on the coffee table and handed them to King. While King was cleaning away his tears, Ram hurried into the kitchen and brought him back a bottle of water. King thanked him and twisted off the lid and took a few drinks from it.

“I’m sorry about that…” he began.

“No!” Ram said with a shake of his head.

King nodded and took another drink from the bottle. “Perth wasn’t lying when he said I called him James,” he said. “I did, but not for the reason he thinks. I didn’t realize I had but I was thinking he was like a character in a movie I had just watched.”

Ram was looking at him intently, so King knew he had his attention. “Your mother showed me the gift your grandfather gave her when she came to Thailand. The books?” King saw Ram nod, “While I was looking at them, one of them caught my eye. When I read the spine of the book, it sounded a lot like something you said once. It was ‘The Double’ by Dostoevsky.” King looked at Ram and saw Ram’s eyebrows go up a bit. King gave a small nod and continued, “She saw me looking at it and told me it was your favorite book. So, late last night, I couldn’t sleep. I went online searching for it and found a movie that was based on the book. Have you ever seen the movie?”

“No,” Ram said quietly.

“The Venus flytrap and I watched it. Anyway, the Original character’s name was Simon James; the Double’s name was James Simon. And that is why I was thinking about James and called Perth that by mistake. He is very much like James.”

“You see that?” Ram asked in surprise. “No one else ever has!”

King nodded. “After I watched that horrible movie, I decided to read the book. I foolishly thought that the book would be better. It was even worse. It’s not a good story, Cool Boy. And I don’t believe it is your favorite book, at all.”

Ram shrugged and looked away.

“I don’t think…well, I really hope you won’t read it again. You were in that situation tonight and you saw what happened. All of us, your friends, sided with the Original, not the Double. The reverse would only happen in fiction. Bad fiction.” King lectured.

Ram took a deep breath and released it. His shoulders relaxed. He peeked at King from the corner of his eye and gave him a slight smile. “Are you going to forbid me?”

King felt confused. He had never forbidden someone from doing something in his life. Except for maybe one of the twins to keep him out of the road or something. Ram was an adult. King had no right to forbid him from doing something. But, the book was bad for Ram. King tilted his head a bit and said, “Yes. I forbid you from reading that book again. And also I forbid you from watching the movie.” His voice sounded weird to his own ears and he knew that Ram could tell how uncomfortable he was saying those words.

Ram gave him a huge grin, “Okay.”

King grinned in response and looked away from Ram’s teasing eyes, but when he did, he noticed the huge spot on Ram’s shoulder. “Oh…I’m sorry. I got your shirt wet.”

Ram looked at the spot and then pulled his shirt off and tossed it on the couch,

King’s mouth went dry. His eyes quickly darted from Ram’s abs, to his muscles, to his tattoos, to his teasing smile, and his laughing eyes, before finally landing on a spot above Ram’s shoulder. He frantically searched his mind for something to say. “Why did you like all those awful pictures that Perth posted?”

“They’re not awful; they’re good.”

“You know what I mean!” King huffed.

Ram pulled his phone out of his pocket. He studied the screen until he found what he wanted. “Look,” he said, handing King his phone.

King rapidly scrolled through Perth’s pictures of him. He had seen them all before. He shrugged and tried to hand the phone back to Ram.

Ram smiled and pushed it back to King. “Look at your hands.”

King started at the top picture, which was the family dinner one and examined it. One of his hands was on the back of the chair, the other one was on the table, holding Ram’s sunglasses. By the third picture down, King was beginning to understand what Ram meant. When he reached the last picture, he looked up at Ram, “You mean your sunglasses?”

Ram nodded, “In every one. Why?”

“The first time he was in the car, I saw him studying them. I felt like he was too interested in them. Like he might take them. For a prop, you know, to look more like you. I knew that he had the fake tattoos of your dreamcatcher made; I thought he might steal them. So, I made sure he couldn’t get them. Which is how I ended up having dinner with your family. He yanked them off my shirt and ran towards the house. I ran after him and then he handed them back and pushed me inside.”

Ram was quiet for a moment and then he quirked an eyebrow, “He could have bought a pair.”

King recoiled as if he had been slapped. That thought had never occurred to him. “Well…yeah, but I wasn’t going to let him have yours!’

Ram’s smile and teasing eyes made King feel shy and embarrassed. He handed back Ram’s phone. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his own. “I was going to wait to show you this, because I wasn’t sure about it…but, now I don’t want to wait.” He opened up the picture of him and NaYo. “It’s the picture that Perth was talking about me getting on Thursday.” He tried to hand his phone to Ram, but Ram had backed off and crossed his arms against his chest.

“No!” Ram said and turned his head away. “I don’t want to see it.”

“Please? I…it would mean a lot to me if you did.”

Ram shook his head ‘no’, made a huffing noise, and then turned to look. He took a quick peek and then turned away, but then he turned back to take a better look. He took the phone out of King’s hand and reached toward the screen to stretch the picture. He looked up at King with shock and amazement on his face.

King laughed. “His name is NaYo, and he and the psychiatrist are going to try to help me with my dog phobia. When I was at my granny’s, I told you how I relived that bad experience. I was upset so I called a helpline. They contacted this doctor and we had a virtual appointment. He said that it wasn’t a good thing to do it the way the magazine article had said. He said it should be done easily and gently. Thursday morning they messaged me to see if I had free time. I had already promised my mother that I would come for lunch, so I scheduled it for the afternoon. And that’s where I was.”

King moved around to where he was standing behind Ram, so he could see the picture too. “When the doctor first brought him out, I thought it was silly. Nobody could be afraid of a little puppy.”

Ram looked at King and King laughed, “Okay, I admit I did jump up on the chair. But only once! I threw a ball for him and he liked it. You should see him when he runs. It’s so funny. His ears are all floppy and sometimes they go over his head and land on the other side! I wish I would have gotten a picture of that to show you!”

“You touched him,” Ram said.

King nodded, “He was asleep though so I knew it was safe. He’s soft. The other dog,” King rubbed his fingers against his jeans, “His hair was rough. Are your dogs soft?”

Ram looked at him and nodded with a smile.

“I figured they were,” King looked back at the picture and sighed, “I feel sorry for NaYo though.”

“Why?”

“He might not ever have a real home. The doctor said that once I’m finished with treatment, NaYo will be sent to another clinic to help other people. Which is great—for the people. Not so great for him. But, the doctor did say that if we train NaYo really well, teach him how to behave, maybe even teach him some tricks, that there is a chance some person who he helps will give him a home. I really want that for him. The doctor is leaving it up to me for how often I come in for our ‘NaYo Parties’, which is what he calls my therapy appointments. I’ve been thinking about it and I want to go as much as I can. I want to do my best to help NaYo.”

Ram nodded while still looking at the picture. “He will get a home.”

“Do you really think so?”

Ram nodded, “I’m certain of it. Will you send me the picture?”

King smiled and took his phone from Ram. He sent the picture and heard the ‘ding’ when it arrived on Ram’s phone. He slid his phone back into his pocket and moved away from Ram. He looked at him for a moment and said, “You believed Perth, didn’t you? That’s why you didn’t want to look at the picture.”

Ram just looked at King without speaking.

“No answer—that means ‘yes’,” King said. “I don’t understand why this thing with me and Beam is being talked about now. It was over ages ago, and it wasn’t a major deal. We just…” he stopped. He didn’t want to talk to Ram about hooking up with someone. It felt sordid.

Ram gave a small nod, “Everyone has a past.”

King took a drink from his water and then walked over to the coffee table to set it down. He raked back his hair, and without turning around to face Ram, said, “I shouldn’t have asked you if you had ever been in love. It’s none of my business. I knew it as soon as the words were out. And I know you waited for me to ask you who, but…I didn’t want to know. I mean…I still don’t want to know.”

“Okay,” Ram answered.

Silence followed. King couldn’t think of anything else to say. After a few moments he turned to look at Ram and saw that Ram was looking at him intently. King knew that when Ram looked like that, he had something he wanted to say but was having difficulty getting it out. King walked back to him and waited. He was on the verge of suggesting that Ram text it, when Ram licked his lip and took a breath. “Tonight”, he said and paused for a second, “Perth followed you.”

“He did? He said he had been looking for me.”

Ram shook his head. “He followed you…and…I followed him.”

“So you were there the whole time? You heard everything?” King asked.

Ram nodded and repeated, “Everything.”

King sighed with a smile, “So you knew he was lying when he said I was after him! I was never after him! He’s just so…”

“‘Disgusting’.” Ram supplied.

“Yes! Especially when he said he would act like he was…” King stopped and looked at Ram. An icy cold wave of horror crashed down on his head and consumed his entire body when he realized that Ram had heard _everything_. He tried to step back, to escape the intensity of Ram’s eyes, but Ram stopped him with a hand on the small of his back.

With his other hand, Ram took hold of King’s wrist. He brought King’s hand up to his chest and pressed it down over his heart. King could feel Ram’s heart beating rapidly and so hard that it felt as if it would burst from his chest.

“The one I love,” Ram said, “Is you. I lied to Perth but he knew.”

King was trying to absorb what Ram had just said when Ram spoke again. “Is this from him?”

King looked to see what Ram meant. Ram had a piece of King’s shirt in his hand. “Yeah,” King answered. “He insisted I wear it, even though it’s too tight and it’s itchy. He said we needed to look like we were the hosts.”

Ram shook his head. “Couple shirts.”

King thought about it and realized that was what Perth had intended for it to look like. He nodded. “I’m going to have it cleaned and then send it back to him.”

Ram shook his head, “No.” And then he grabbed the sides of the shirt and yanked. The front of it exploded, with buttons flying in all directions. Ram looked at King and said, “Oops. I guess I ruined both of them.”

King threw back his head and laughed. Ram grinned and pulled the shredded pieces of shirt off King and dropped them on the floor. He pulled King into his arms and rubbed his hand across King’s back. “Better?” he asked.

King nodded and sighed. Ram had gotten rid of all the itchy places on his back. “I hated that thing,” Ram whispered. “And I hated that picture of the two of you on the screen.”

“I hated it, too. I was trying to take his hand off of me, but it looks like I am holding it.”

Ram nodded. They were quiet for a bit. King could feel Ram’s heart beating hard against his chest and he knew that Ram could feel his.

“I’m not like my dad,” Ram stated.

“I know.”

“Are you?”

King gave a slight shake of his head, “No.”

Ram gave a small nod and then he turned his head and nuzzled King’s neck. “Are you mine?” he whispered against King’s skin.

At the feel of Ram’s lips on his neck, King felt a rush of heat all over his body and at the same time, he was covered with chills. His knees buckled and if Ram hadn’t have been holding onto him, King would have fallen to the floor. He tried to say ‘yes’ but all that came out was a small moan. Ram understood. He began to travel around King’s neck, whispering “Mine” and sealing each whisper with a kiss.

By the time Ram had finished his trip around King’s neck, King had his head thrown back like a rag doll and his eyes were closed. Ram slid his palm up to cup the side of King’s face and to tilt his head forward.

King opened his eyes and looked into Ram’s. Ram’s face was soft and flushed. His eye lids were heavy but his eyes were intense. King felt as if he could lose himself in the depths of Ram’s eyes.

Ram looked down at King’s mouth and ran his thumb lightly across King’s bottom lip. “Can I ‘attack’ you now?” he asked.

King tried to answer him, but no sound came out. Ram smiled and leaned forward. Against King’s lips he whispered, “No answer? That means ‘yes’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for giving me the gift of your time to read my story. Thank you also for your kudos and comments. I have enjoyed your comments so much! There were a lot of times I wanted to answer, but I knew I would give away the story if I did!


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